Vegetable crops in Bulgaria - unit of the sustainable food chain

Rumen Popov

Abstract: The attempt of paper is to give passing valuation of stability development on food chain of the vegetables in Bulgaria. Statistical data have been used for the period 2000–2015. The usable model of stability includes indicators in three groups – of development ambience, of production factors and of resultant factors. Their performance ultimately determines the competitiveness and sustainability of production. Certain trends and model development; the parameters are compared to thresholds, i.e. comparison is made with groups of countries. The final assessment of the vegetal growing stability will be based on following indicators: 1. Increase / decrease of sector share on the world market; 2. Increase of labour productivity by different stages of the food chain; 3. Increase of competitiveness index value; 4. Increase of added value by different stages of the food chain. In result of the research, a conclusion could be made that the strong sides of Bulgarian vegetable growing stability – provision of land, favourable climate and existing traditions, are in process of consistent overreached by the deficits of development ambience and production factors. The share of Bulgaria in the world trade with vegetables decreases and the country has become a net importer of vegetables. Finally, in the open ambience of the Common European market, Bulgarian plant-growing demonstrates still decreasing stability.

Keywords: indicators; stability; vegetable growing

Date published: 2017-09-13