Five leading suppliers throughout the fruit production chain met with Bulgarian growers and discussed wide range of challenges, solutions and prospects for bilateral partnerships under the Netherlands Fruit Basket Bulgaria PIB program.
The group that took part in the Netherlands fruit basket Bulgaria PIB Program.
Five leading Dutch suppliers throughout the fruit production chain visited Bulgaria for their third business mission under the Netherlands Fruit Basket Bulgaria PIB program (NFBB). In four days, experts from BATO, Fall Creek, Fleuren, GEERLOFS and Netteam, met with stone, pome, and soft fruit growers from Southern and Southeastern Bulgaria. During very interesting field visits and active discussions, the group had an opportunity to get first-hand impressions on both substantial growth potential and wide range of sectoral challenges in the country – frosts and climate adaptation, competitive and sustainable produce, higher efficiency and resilience, and more. But led by the believe that every challenge represents an opportunity, Netherlands Fruit Basket Bulgaria shared ideas and suggestions of how the Netherlands – with its experience, knowledge and technology, might be of help to Bulgarian entrepreneurs. Providing tailor-made and adaptable to local environment solutions, NFBB aims to unlock sustainable and competitive development of the fruit sector in Bulgaria.
Frosts
Unfortunately, the theme of 2025 season for fruit growers in Bulgaria is frost. Several frost waves between February and early April caused significant damages to almost every stone fruit orchard across the whole country – with even areas along the Black Sea coast and Greek border, considered very low-risk, being severely affected. Several possible risk mitigation practices throughout the production chain were actively discussed between the cluster members and Bulgarian growers during the mission - with the clear realization that there are no 100%-guarantee solutions to extreme events like those experienced this year. However, starting from the planting material, growers could already significantly lower their frost risk exposure. Cherry and plum varieties with late flowering or less susceptible to frost buds and flowers are the first mitigation step that could be planned and taken already at orchard creation stage – with Fleuren being able to deliver high-quality planting material, adjusted to Bulgarian environment and market.
Active mitigation techniques – with their feasibility, suitability and requirements at farm level, were also discussed and feedback exchanged with the growers. Among them - automated technologies involving sprinklers or air circulation mobile turbines – both fully integrated with sophisticated whether stations and risk monitoring and evaluation software.
Climate adaptation
While, in most cases, frost waves are not widespread and repetitive events, changing climate imposes also other long-term challenges for Bulgarian fruit growers that affect various aspects of their operations. With average temperatures on the rise and rainfall declining (but getting more concentrated and in extreme events), Bulgaria is gradually moving from moderate climate conditions towards more mediterranean (while still keeping all the risks associated with the moderate one). And this brings a wide set of new threat to the orchards and their managers – new pests and diseases; water scarcity, but in the same time sogging rain showers and fierce hailstorms; lower humidity and higher solar impact; substantial temperature volatility, etc. The business cluster and Bulgarian growers exchanged views on positive climate adaptation impact from implementation of: more adapted and resilient varieties and rootstocks; modern systems for water management and precise, automated fertigation; anti hail, support and shadowing systems; weather monitoring and forecasting systems, and more.
Competitive fruit produce
With vast majority of Bulgarian orchards being old, with outdated and very diverse variety structure, having a fruit production that is up to the current market demand, not only in Bulgaria, but across Europe, has been for a long time one of the key challenges for Bulgarian growers. And striving for long-term competitiveness and growth, they raised with high interest this issue to the Netherlands Fruit Basket Bulgaria cluster. Latest licensed and club varieties were discussed, capable of delivering an all-desired combination of high yields; specifically chosen harvest window; great taste and qualities on demand by consumers and retailers; appealing look; long shelf, transportation and storage life; uniformity; easier crop management, etc. And some of the Bulgarian growers already expressed strong interest to start testing and implementing them. In addition, it was highlighted how important for today’s complex supply chains are precision and timely post-harvest activities – pre-cooling, sorting, quality control, packaging and cold storage.
View towards a large berry producer in Southeastern Bulgaria. Soft fruit sector is among the fastest growing branches in Bulgarian horticulture with high level adoption of modern varieties, technologies and practices.
Reducing operational costs
On the other side of the competitiveness equation are the production costs and operational effectiveness. Yet another long-standing challenge in Bulgarian fruit sector brought to the table by the growers. NFBB’s experts suggested wide range of modern solutions and practices to improve orchard efficiencies – including, but not limited to:
- resistant and less susceptible planting material and bio agents and practices for reduced plant protection input;
- intensive planting schemes and 2-year planting material for lowering production costs per unit, earlier entry in harvesting and optimizing orchard management;
- fully automated, smart and circular fertigation and monitoring systems for reduced and more sustainable water and chemical consumption;
- driverless/robot spraying, pruning, mowing and picking for lower labor and input costs, faster operations and reducing the dependance on labor shortages;
- Implementation of software for overall farm management, capable of providing precise overview of all operational activities and their fine tuning, according to the individual farm needs.
Orchard efficiency starts from the “drawing table”. Netteam and Van Oostrum perform a remote mapping of an old orchard intended for renewal in Burgas region. In just two hours the grower is able to receive a complete, tailor-made map of the new plantation with estimation of everything needed, depending on the fruit and planting scheme – from the amount of bolts and clips and meters of wires and cables, to the number of trees and their variety order.
What’s next?
To continue the active bilateral dialogue and to strengthen business ties, Netherlands Fruit Basket Bulgaria is organizing, in beginning of July, a business and study trip to the Netherlands for Bulgarian fruit growers and experts. In three days, the rich program will bring the visitor group to fellow Dutch growers; supply chain experts; research centers and dozens of technology, product and services providers throughout the whole production chain.
And likely the best and most important compliment to the NFBB mission to Bulgaria is that many of the visited Bulgarian growers already signed-up to be part of this professional adventure.
Stay tuned!
Netherlands Fruit Basket Bulgaria
Netherlands Fruit Basket Bulgaria is a 3-year PIB program by cluster of 15 Netherlands suppliers of high-quality solutions for fruit production aimed at intensifying technology, knowledge and know-how transfer to Bulgarian growers. The initiative is supported by the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland and facilitated by LVVN Attaché Netwerk (LAN) and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bulgaria.