Tonnes of carrots are thrown away by producers in the Burgas region, in Bulgaria, while the market is flooded by Turkish produce grown with (allegedly) dubious methods, warned Mr Nikolay Nedialkov, president of the Association of Vegetable Producers in Burgas. The reason for this situation is not the price, but the fact that the imported product has a suspiciously long shelf life.
"Bulgarian vegetables are grown under natural conditions without pesticides, which means that they only stay in good condition for a few days. Meanwhile, carrots from Turkey remain in excellent condition even after 15 days," stated Mr Nedialkov.
Because of this, retailers prefer to buy imported goods, even though "domestic products are tastier and the Turkish carrots are grown with products that were banned in Bulgaria 25 years ago," he said.
This year, domestic growers expect a good harvest. According to statistics, however, only between 2 and 10 percent of the production sold on the market will be Bulgarian. Everything else is imported.
