SWOT ANALYSIS OF ORGANIC MARKET IN BULGARIA

In 2009, a big market research has been carried out by Vitosha research company, including 120 producers, retailers and wide number of consumers. This research is a huge document written on 273 pages with a lot of analyses, the most important of which is SWOT analysis of organic market in Bulgaria. Main conclusions from SWOT analysis are: Bulgaria has sufficient objective conditions to become a serious player in the bioproduction. As a serious potential can be reported the presence of a suitable environment and agricultural soils that could be adapted to organic farming. Regulations of organic production, and import and export of such products are clearly regulated and aligned with European requirements. Problems facing the bioproduction are more of economic nature - still lower subsidies per hectare, which have Bulgarian producers. The consumption of organic products is still poorly developed. The reason is low consumer awareness of the benefits of these products, as well as the ability to differentiate organic products from any imitations. Obstacles to consumption could be still limited distribution of organic products - the lack of specialized stores (except big cities like Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv), and also the available information sources, as well as low social status of people. Least popular products in Bulgaria are organic products that are not foods. Such products, with the exception of the essential oils are hardly produced in the country. The main part of organic production in Bulgaria remain foods, herbs, honey