Haskovo tankers are waiting for crushed Romanian grapes. Bulgarian fruit has no buyer
Albena Simeonova flagged three tankers at Nikopol, mash already ready to ferment. Growers say offers are below cost. The ministry's target is €35 million, and Customs is stopping every van.
Three tankers with Haskovo plates were waiting at Nikopol for crushed Romanian grapes, already ready to ferment.
Albena Simeonova, a grower there, told Telegraph that Bulgarian cellars are buying fruit from Romania, North Macedonia and Moldova cheap, mashed, ready for the tank — while local grapes have no buyer and last year's wine is still sitting. Cellars that pour that mash, she says, still sell the bottle as Thracian terroir.
The National Association of Bulgarian Vine Growers, chaired by Atanas Vasilev, wrote to the ministry: demand is extremely weak, offers below cost, some growers asking not "at what price" but "is there any point in picking." Fruit may stay on the vine.
Deputy agriculture minister Yanislav Yanchev, in Pleven: grower aid via so-called "Iranian aid" plus a liquidity measure, aiming at €35 million with national co-finance. Customs and the tax agency are stopping "every van and truck."
Romanian grapes are cheaper, Simeonova says, because more of that crop is sold as raw material, not as bottled wine.
Mini-concept: a tanker of ready-to-ferment mash is not a vintage. It is a price.
A flavoured can was never terroir. A Thracian label on Romanian mash is the cheat the growers are pointing at.
Remember: three Haskovo tankers at Nikopol, and the ministry's target is €35 million.
Source: Telegraph