2012- ANOTHER GOOD YEAR FOR BULGARIA'S WINE INDUSTRY

Due to the hot and dry summer the vine harvest started earlier than usual this year. 2012 brought many fears to the Bulgarian wine-growers because last winter was long and very cold and part of the vineyards in Bulgaria were damaged by frost.

This was followed by a long, dry and boiling hot summer which has also affected large part of the crop. The only good news for the wine-growers was the lack of heavy autumn rainfalls, which could completely damage the harvest. Although the harvest this year is 30% weaker than the one in 2011, it is of extremely high quality, as the sun radiation brought higher sugar content to the grapes.

After 2011, which was a remarkable year for the Bulgarian wine-industry, 2012 will be the year of high-quality wines. The weaker in quantity yield will be compensated by higher purchase prices of the grapes. The vine harvest in all European countries was weaker than 2011, so it is quite natural for the price to go up. This fall not only Bulgarian companies, but also ones from all over Europe have shown great interest in the Bulgarian grapes. Highest interest was shown by companies from Italy, Romania, Greece and the Czech Republic.

They are looking mainly for white grapes as white grapes are gaining huge popularity worldwide and red grapes prevail in most of the vineyards at present. White grapes is used for the production of the wine distillate, which is the raw material for the production of stronger alcoholic beverages such as cognac, brandy, vermouth, liquors, etc.

Red wines are traditionally more popular on the Bulgarian market. That is why there is only one Bulgarian song about white wine and it sings” Oh my white wine, I wish you were red.”. However the new trend of popularizing the white wines and the rose wines is acknowledged by the Bulgarian wine-growers as well. Experts expect that the imbalance between red and white brands will soon be changed to 60% to 40% in favor of the red grapes. Now the correlation is 70% to 30% in favor of the ruby grapes. Many Bulgarian wine-growers are now choosing the local white brand Karlovski misket, which has been grown on these lands since the Thracian period. This brand is extremely cold and draught-resistant.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food marks an increase of 16% in the export of Bulgarian wines abroad for the first half of 2012. Russia is the biggest importer of Bulgarian wines, followed by Romania, Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. After a period of depression the sales of Bulgarian wines on the local market mark an increase of 13%. This proves that Bulgarians are replacing liquors with wine, says the Minister of Agriculture and Food Miroslav Naidenov.

In his words the Bulgarian wines are now positioning in the middle price and high price category worldwide. However, Naydenov does not approve the proposal of Scotland for minimum prices of the wines sold in the EU. This would mean a minimum price of 5.5 Euros or 11 leva per bottle, which can not be afforded by a Bulgarian citizen with an average monthly salary of 350 Euro. “We disagree with this proposal because the incomes of the Bulgarians are still very low”, says Minister Naydenov.