The visit by European Commissioner on Agriculture and Rural Development Mariann Fischer Boel to Bulgaria on September 11 brought the future of agriculture in Bulgaria into the focus of public attention.

While Bulgarian-language media reports said that the European Union might cut farm subsidies for Bulgaria and Romania by 25 per cent, and while Bulgaria's Government was keen to impress the European Commission that agriculture could be moved off the list of "red areas" in Bulgaria's EU-readiness, Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil gave some insights into important issues about the future of the sector.

Speaking after a meeting with Boel that he attended along with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, Kabil said that a lot of intensive work had been done in the past year in co-operation with European experts in relation to the preparation for the introduction of the Common Agricultural Policy in the country.

The Government media office quoted Boel as saying that the implementation of the measures under the Agriculture Chapter had shown considerable progress, and the Ministry of Agriculture deserved congratulations on the work well done, especially on the establishment of a Paying Agency and the Land Parcel Identification System.

In a separate development, the Government unveiled details of its strategy to keep Bulgaria's place in the lucrative medicinal plants sector.

"The Government's strategy for the development of the medicinal plants sub-sector in Bulgarian agriculture aims to ensure the country's market position in the field of medicinal plants and thus to encourage the economy and employment," according to an official statement.

The strategy was drawn up by representatives of state institutions in co-operation with the Bulgarian Association of Herb and Mushroom Gatherers and research institutes and with the financial and technical assistance of the German Technical Cooperation.

The strategy was to be drafted because of the constant increase in the consumption of plant raw materials for the purposes of cosmetics, the food processing industry and the pharmaceutical industry in Bulgaria as well as on the world scale.

From 2002 to 2005, the annual trade in medicinal plants on the European market increased from $7 billion to $9 billion. Similar growth is expected in Asia, Japan and North America.

The sub-sector has good prospects on the international market.

According to the Government, Bulgaria is the biggest exporter of herbs in Europe and is ranked fifth or sixth in the world. Production totals 17 000 tons, with exports accounting for between 10 000 and 15 000 tons in recent years. The export of herbs includes 150 different plants.

"The shortcomings in the sub-sector of medicinal plants in Bulgaria are related to the cultivation, the lack of cooperation within the sub-sector, the lack of an accessible system for market information, funding problems, insufficient training," the Government statement said.

The strategy addresses these shortcomings through measures to improve sectoral policy, related to the access of stakeholders to national and European funding schemes, amendment to the procedure for the registration of agricultural producers, encouragement of research in the sector of medicinal plants.

The cultivation of medicinal plants will be assisted by the Agriculture State Fund and the Ministry of Environment and Water, according to the strategy.

Interest-free loans will be allocated when the cultivation has a beneficial effect on the environment. The authorities will introduce criteria for the application of small producers for SAPARD funding. There are plans for the establishment of a separate fund that will collect the fees from the sub-sector, the re-investment in the sub-sector as well as the development of various encouragement programmes for their use in co-operation with the private sector.

The authorities will introduce EU requirements for plant protection products.

"Good practices are about to be introduced in the whole production process, as well as the establishment of the system for market information, the increase in the share of training in medicinal plants in the curriculum of agricultural universities," the statement said.

On the subject of another industry that is currently of immense significant within Bulgaria's agriculture and economy as a whole - tobacco - Kabil said that tobacco would be grown as long as there was demand, but under new rules.

Interviewed by Bulgaria's Focus News Agency, Kabil said "interest in the quality Bulgarian, mainly oriental, tobaccos has not decreased from a global point of view. Meanwhile we are witnessing a reorienting of the production and of the markets".

Kabil said that in time, the European subsidising policy would explicitly refuse to finance tobacco-growing.

"Despite everything, once a part of the EU, Bulgaria will have the right to a three-year transition period in which to continue funding tobacco-growing," Kabil said.

After the three-year period expires, Bulgaria will not have the right to subsidise this sector. This period would have to be used for additional adaptation and re-orientation for everyone working in the tobacco-growing sector.