2023-12-16 15:48:57
When there are no Bulgarian vegetables, our market becomes like a trash can for goods sprayed with unauthorized preparations and left for a long time in refrigerators
“After a few days, I turn off the heating and root out the tomatoes. The green fruits you see will be thrown away. Until December 18 at the most, I will heat and … End!’
Ivan Kaburov is in greenhouse, which is one of the most high-tech models. Tall, bright and quite expensive. Tomatoes have climbed far above human struggle and are full of fruit. This greenhouse in Malo Konare village, Pazardzhik has been a favorite place for reports of small and large media for years.
“Can’t you just let them grow and then turn off the heat,” I ask, because the ripe fruit tastes unexpectedly good. Better than anything sold in retail chains. These tomatoes do not deserve to be pruned before the last fruit has been picked.
“There comes a point where it is not profitable to continue,”
Ivan explains patiently. “Workers are paid, food is scarce, heating is too expensive. My price is BGN 2.50 per kilogram and it is already unprofitable. Pellets for a greenhouse that is 8 acres are 3 to 5 tons per night. The consumption is 700-800 kg of pellets per hectare. That is, I pay about BGN 2,000 – 3,000 per acre, depending on the night temperature.
If the day is foggy or cloudy, we also heat during the day. If it’s sunny, the temperature rises under the polyethylene and we turn off the heating. When there is no sun, the tomato simply goes to sleep because it does not photosynthesize. Then the yields are 4-5 times lower than in summer, as the plant barely bears fruit. The day is short, it gets dark around 4 p.m.
“No, I can’t wait for them to ripen. At most, by peeling the green tomatoes, I should sell them for pickles,” the vegetable grower suggests.
What does the flag show? Tomatoes produced with love for Bulgaria
Recently (November 29) in a joint statement Minister Kiril Vatev and the chairman of the parliamentary agricultural committee Desislava Taneva informed that “specific” energy state aid has been sent for notification. Does Ivan Kaburov believe that there will be such help?
“I read that funds will be allocated for heating. But that’s just words. Tomorrow they may say that there was no vote. Therefore, it is a luxury for us to spend more to extend the old harvest to bring it as close as possible to the new one. Ideally, the window between the two harvests would be in January for 15 days so that we can clear the greenhouse of the current plants and plant new tomatoes. But that won’t happen. The window will not be 15 days, it will be about 2 and a half months. We will plant in late February – early March when the days are longer, there is more sun and the nights are warmer. In this way, we will be able to start preparing the plants to bear fruit a month earlier than in unheated greenhouses, with lower costs.”
This is the plan of the Kaburov family. It seems reasonable, since energy traders – gas, pellets and others – ask for prepayment, and the risk is borne by the producer.
Ivan Kaburov continued with concealed exasperation: “This expensive facility, in which we have invested so much money to get production through the winter, will remain unused for two and a half months – unheated and equated to ordinary tunnel facilities.
Our desire to provide the Bulgarian consumer with pure Bulgarian vegetables
with a clear origin, which have not been aged in refrigerators for 5-6 days, as happens with the goods from Turkey or Albania, cannot be implemented.”
He recalled that before the pandemic, pellets were three times cheaper. Gas – at three to four times lower stable prices. Electricity with two or three times lower rates.
“At the moment there is an uncertainty in the Bulgarian market and in the world. This is no time to take chances, it is not wise to expose ourselves to bankruptcy. Consumption in the markets is less. The competition from Turkey is very big. The markets are flooded with low-quality tomatoes of unclear origin, treated with preparations that are not allowed for the Bulgarian market. Our market is becoming like a garbage can,” explains the greenhouse grower from Malo Konare, who has done everything necessary to produce high-quality produce according to the rules, but is forced to rest until early spring because the state does not lend a hand to the greenhouse sector.
“Years ago, the support for the greenhouse was as much as for 10 acres of wheat, with incomparably higher costs for growing greenhouse vegetables. If the Ministry and the Agriculture Fund do not manage to distribute the subsidies properly so that the weak sectors can be revived, the blunder will be big.
Powerful sectors will destroy more vulnerable ones, such as vegetable production.
Every year fewer and fewer people grow vegetables because the costs are too high. It is very difficult to find workers. In addition to being a sector that supplies the market with fresh, fresh and quality produce, we also have a social policy. I currently employ 21 year-round workers and about 50-60 people who I hire during the contract season.
The workers are happy with the employer, who often jokes with them
The Kaburovi farming family manages about 5000 decares of land. In addition to greenhouse vegetables, he also grows cabbage, pumpkins, wheat and sunflowers. Some of the workers travel every day from Rakitovo. “Hunger brings them,” says Ivan. A man from Sliven who worked in Germany and Slovakia arrived these days. He recently watched Desislava Kaburova in the TV show “To catch the forest” and directly arrived in Malo Konare to look for work with the family. “I accommodated him, he is very happy,” laughs Ivan.
“Until recently, in our farm, the vegetable production sector was supported entirely by the grain production sector. This year
the loss from grain production is atrocious.
Last week we sold the last sunflower at a price below cost – 73 cents per kilogram. The problem is not the price. The problem is that in the area from Plovdiv to the city of Septemvri, the summer rains were separated in this strip and not a single drop of rain fell anywhere. Therefore, instead of harvesting 260-300 kilograms of sunflower, we harvested 40 kg each. It was a total waste.”
This on the one hand. But on the other hand, Ivan Kaburov is happy that “two weeks ago, together with my bride, we got our license for combine harvesters”.
“The important thing is to enjoy the little things,” he adds with a smile. “May we be alive and well, and whatever happens, we will work and enjoy life.”
#December #root #tomatoes #greenhouseAgro #Plovdiv