The typical farm BG5500PLE in province,

Farm structureFarm structure in Bulgaria in Bulgaria 2010 2010

1,000 100 % Data on the structure of Bulgarian farms is available only at national level. In 2010, 91 % of agricultural holdings 800 80 % utilized between 0 and 4.99 ha of agricultural area. Over 78 % of the utilized agricultural area is located in holdings 600 60 % with an area of 100 ha or more.

400 TF 40 % Looking at the legal status of the farms, holdings owned by individuals account for 98 %, followed by those owned 200 20 % by commercial companies (1 %), sole traders (0.6 %), co- Average farm size in ha in size farm Average operatives (~0.3 %) and other holdings (~0.1 %). Natural 0 0 % natural sole cooperatives commercial other persons mange 33.8 % of the utilized agricultural area, persons proprietorships companies commercial companies 31.6 %, cooperatives 17.7 %, sole traders 14.9 % and the remaining holdings 2 %. Average size of farm % of farms % of farming area Over 751,000 people worked on agricultural holdings in 2010. Of these, 697,000 belong to the category of family Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, 2011 labor. Against this background, the typical farm is a commer- cial company holding cultivating around 5,500 ha in the 2011/12 agricultural year.

Farm classification/type

86.5 % of the utilized agricultural area (3.62 million ha) Northwest region. Vegetables occupy 1.2 % of the arable is arable land, followed by permanent grassland (10.4 %) land and are grown mainly in the South Center region. and permanent crops (2.8 %). As per 2007 data from Eurostat, 29.2 % of the land is cul- The arable land is divided into 250,900 holdings. Cereals tivated by mixed farms engaged in crop and livestock pro- are grown on 47.8 % of the holdings, representing 58.1 % duction. of the arable land. Industrial crops occupy 33.9 % of the Consequently, the typical farm was constructed as cultivat- arable land and are grown on 23.1 % of the holdings pos- ing cereals and industrial crops. sessing arable land. Most industrial plants are grown in the

AverageAverage climate climate data data 1990 1990 -- 2007 2007 Bulgaria The annual average temperature depends on the 100 25 latitude and ranges from 8 °C in the North and 90 11 °C in the South, with temperatures of 2.6 °C 20 80 in the mountains and 12 °C in the plains. Typical 70 15 precipitation is 630 mm but varies between less 60 than 450 mm in the lowland north east to over °C mm 50 10 1,000 mm in the highest mountain regions. The 40 5 lowlands receive snowfall from mid-October to 30 mid-March (snow can fall up to May in the high- 20 0 est mountain regions only) with an annual aver- 10 age of 25 - 30 days of snow cover. The high- 0 -5 Jan Feb Mar April May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec est peaks, above 2,800 m, have a snow cover

Avg. Precipitation - municipality, Pleven Avg. Precipitation - Bulgaria throughout the year.

Avg. Temperature - Pordim municipality, Pleven Avg. Temperature - Bulgaria The typical farm is situated in the moderately continental climatic zone with large temperature variations from -15 °C to +40 °C. The average Source: The World Bank Group, Climate change knowledge portal 2012 precipitation for the period 1990/2007 is 540.7 mm and the average temperature is 11.4 °C.

Authors: Kathrin Strohm and Gueorguieva, May 2012 1 Comparison of average yields Bulgaria Comparison of average yields

5.0 4.6 4.5 The graph above refers to the main crops grown by the typical farm. In all four crops, the typical 3.7 3.8 4.0 farm obtains higher yields than the regional av- 3.0 2.8 erage. The lower regional average yields are 3.0 2.6 2.1 understandable as poorly conducted land resti- t/ha 2.0 tution and farm privatization after 1990 as well as general economic conditions (unavailable 1.0 capital, decrease in inputs) resulted in a severe drop of the agricultural output. Land fragmenta- 0.0 tion is extreme and considered as an obstacle wheat sunflower barley winter rapeseed for the development of a healthy agricultural BG5500PLE: avg. 2008 - 2010 North West Bulgaria: avg. 2008 - 2010 sector. The wheat yield of the typical farm is a mix of wheat grown after rapeseed (4.9 t/ha) and wheat grown after wheat (4.1 t/ha). Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture and food, 2011; agri benchmark 2011

Gross marginGross comparison margin comparison Bulgaria

900 776 800 BG5500PLE: 2008/2009 District Pleven: 2008/2009 For a comparison of gross margins only the 700 year 2008/09 was considered since this is the 600 490 only year gross margin data from other farms in 500 376 the Pleven region was available. Based on this 400 Euro/ha limited source, the typical farm obtained higher 300 224 202 200 gross margins in all three crops. 200 100 0 winter wheat winter barley winter rapeseed

Source: Ceres research, agri benchmark 2011

Authors: Kathrin Strohm and Elena Gueorguieva, May 2012 2