Abrovski opens harvest at AYA Estate, Harsovo: Bulgaria can be a wine benchmark again
Agriculture minister Plamen Abrovski opened the 2026 harvest at AYA Estate in Harsovo, Sandanski municipality, with a deputy minister present. He pitched unique terroir, wine tourism and a career that began at the Vine and Wine Executive Agency in 2004.
The Struma belt got an official first cut.
Agro.bg reports minister Plamen Abrovski opening the harvest campaign in the vineyards of AYA Estate, village of Harsovo, Sandanski municipality. Deputy minister Krasimir Chakarov attended. Abrovski said Bulgaria holds unique terroir and can compete with established regions — he named France — and reminded that his own path as a lawyer started in 2004 at the Vine and Wine Executive Agency, learning from enologists and European practice.
Mayor Atanas Stoyanov framed Sandanski–Petrich and the Melnik belt as a living livelihood: dozens of cellars, innovative planting, and hundreds of new decares over the past 15 years. The minister tied wine to tourism, local jobs and rural development, calling AYA a working example of the three together.
Mini-concept: a harvest opening is soft power for place. When a minister stands in Harsovo rather than a Sofian hall, the message is that Struma valley vineyards are national story, not only local folklore.
Remember: AYA Estate Harsovo harvest open; Abrovski from Vine & Wine Agency 2004; hundreds of new decares in Sandanski–Petrich / Melnik.
Source: Agro.bg