Decline in sales of Bulgarian wine on the foreign market

There has been a decline in the sales of Bulgarian wine on the foreign market. Over the past three years, exports have decreased by about 10%, according to data from the Executive Agency for Vine and Wine.

In 2024, the areas cultivated with wine grape varieties are also shrinking, leading to a decrease in the harvest and the wine produced.

Against this backdrop, there is good news - the purchase price of grapes is rising.

Less grape harvest and less wine produced are reported after the extremely hot year of 2024 by producers from the Struma Valley.

Last year, the yield for the region was around 420 kilograms per decare, while in the Black Sea region, according to the data from the Executive Agency for Vine and Wine, it reached up to 640 kilogrammes per decare.

"The harvest is at least 30% lower than the average for the last 10 years," said Nikola Zikatano, owner of a winery.

"The lack of moisture, the lack of rain has led to a decrease in yields of 30 to 50%, depending on the variety," added Pavel Gramatikov, owner of a winery.

Converted into numbers, this means 67,231,000 litres of wine produced in 2024, which is nearly 3.8 million litres less than in 2023.

To deal with the drought, one of the large wineries in the Melnik region has already installed drip irrigation.

"It was with European assistance, so we are very grateful to be able to take advantage of such programmes. There were producers in the region who lost a significant part of their harvest due to the drought, but we managed to save ours," commented Militsa Zikatova, marketing and sales at the winery.

However, this is not possible everywhere.

"The problem is that even drilling wells at 100-150 metres does not provide water. The depth is quite significant, and there is no water. If the weather continues as it was in 2024, within two, three, or four years, the vineyards will disappear," said Eng. Rada Videnova, chairwoman of the National Vine and Wine Chamber.

"The Ministry of Agriculture has taken targeted actions to restore much of the 'Irrigation Systems' facilities, so that we can return the normal appearance of agricultural areas and not observe dried-up crops, low yields, and disappointed farmers," said Yanislav Yanchev, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food.

Amid this, there was only an increase in the average purchase price of grapes last year, which rose from 0.75 BGN per kg in 2023 to 0.82 BGN per kg for the 2024 harvest.

Despite the challenges and increased costs for grapevine cultivation and wine production over the last year, producers from the Struma Valley do not plan to raise wine prices.