Yavor Nedelchev from the town of Silistra has been working in the tourism field for over 20 years. He works as a housekeeping manager in a large hotel complex in Bulgaria’s coastal city of Varna. However, he is a very successful apiculturist as well:

I have managed to combine successfully tourism and beekeeping in the recent years. I have been working in the tourism sector for a very long time and spent 16-17 years on sea and river cruises (The Seine and Rhône in France and the Danube).

I started beekeeping over 10 years ago and this is one of the things that made me return to Bulgaria. In the beginning apiculture was merely a hobby, but then it grew into a small business. I have almost 200 beehives. My biggest bee-garden is in the village of Ovchaga near the town of Provadia (Northeast Bulgaria). I also do mobile beekeeping (moving bee colonies to suitable forage) and manage to produce more types of honey. I mainly produce acacia honey, sunflower honey and thistle honey, because this region abounds with thistle (Cardus nutans). I also produce other bee products such as bee pollen, propolis (bee glue), etc.

Beekeepers have been facing a series of difficulties in the recent years. That is why European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan insists that the budget allotted to apiculture under the future Common Agricultural Policy should increase from EUR 32 million to EUR 62 million.

Every beekeeper faced difficulties in this sector when starting a bee farm. It requires a lot of investments. In the beginning beekeepers should invest their own money, in order to apply for EU subsidies or money allotted by the State Fund Agriculture later, Yavor Nedelchev told Radio Bulgaria. Beekeepers offer the products typical of their own region. Like I said earlier, the region l live abounds with thistle and it is present in almost all types of honey produced here. Meanwhile, we can apply for funding under various programmes-Yong Farmer, Measure 6.3, etc. I received subsidies under the measure 6.3 in the recent years. This financial instrument helps apiculturists a lot.

We always tend to say that the Bulgarian honey is unique. Does Yavor Nedelchev things so?

I visited many countries when I sailed on the ships. I tried to collect information about the honey produced in these countries and whether Bulgarian honey was sold on their market. Bulgaria is one of the top 3 herb producers in the world and one of the biggest producers of herbs and essential oils. The Bulgarian honey contains a great variety of herbs and the European countries buy our honey to improve their own product, because they mainly produce monofloral (single-flower) honey. We export mainly to Germany. However, I sell successfully my produce in Bulgaria as well.

How does Yavor Nedelchev assess the perspectives for the development of the Bulgarian tourism?

I visited many countries and saw a lot and I can definitely say that Bulgaria is the world’s most beautiful country. Bulgaria’s nature is unique. We have an outlet on the sea, many good winter resorts and unique variety of mineral waters – over 520 springs. Bulgaria is second in Europe after Iceland in natural mineral water and natural-source spring water resources. The country’s total mineral water capacity is nearly 5,000 liters per second. We should not forget that Bulgaria has a strategic geographic location in Europe. In other words, there are many prerequisites for development of a very successful tourism. In my view, however, we should double our efforts, in order to achieve the necessary results. For the purpose, this country should attract more experienced people who can contribute to the development of tourism with their knowledge in this field. On the other hand, every hotelkeeper must spend enough time and money to ensure adequate training to the young people who want to make careers in this sector.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov