Fifth Conference of the National Union of Bulgarian Agroeconomists

On 29–30 May, under the topic of “Problems of Bulgarian Agribusiness during the pre-accession to European Union period” the Union of Bulgarian Agroeconomists conducted in Sofia its Fifth science-and-practical Conference.
At the Conference, there were presented 24 reports on the following topics:

• Agribusiness during the pre-accession period;
• Financial mechanisms for assisting agriculture;
• Organizational structures in agribusiness;
• Competability of Bulgarian agribusiness commodities at the domestic and foreign markets;
• Sustainable development of Agriculture.

The problems discussed in the papers were hotly discussed by the conference participants. On the basis of the discussion, there were achieved the following major conclusions:

• The long length of the Agricultural Reform caused the degradation of agriculture and it still is in trouble. In spite of this, during the recent years, the agricultural policy is totally submitted to the aims of agricultural restoration and its sustainable development in accordance with the requirements of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU;
• It is necessary to facilitate the accession to credits of the rural households as a necessary condition for the development of the rural regions;
• The organizational restructuring of agriculture will continue while the role of the production cooperatives will decrease and give way to private farms. The production cooperatives will more and more transform in service cooperatives.
• Agricultural exports depend not only on the market, but also on the competability of the producers;
• The concept of sustainable agricultural development faces many barriers whose overcoming mainly depends on agricultural producers;
• One of the alternatives of conventional agriculture is biological agriculture for which there are favorable conditions in Bulgaria.

Dr. Violina Hadjieva
Deputy Editor-in-Chief
of the National Union of Bulgarian Agroeconomists