Study trip: Central Bulgaria

In September 2026 I went on a study trip to the area around Troyan, in Lovech Province, next to the Central Balkan National Park. The topic was organic fruit growing in Bulgaria, apples and plums in particular: first lectures, then visits to an extensive organic plum orchard and an intensive apple orchard. I had been to Bulgaria once before, on rosehip business – the country is one of the world’s leading producers of rose oil, rosehip and rose products.

Local fruit on local shelves

One of the lectures listed fruit species that are not traditional but are edible: pawpaw (Indian banana, Asimina triloba), jujube, large-fruited hawthorn varieties, cherry plum, Sorbus species. The food industry won’t take such small, fluctuating lots, because it can’t develop a product or a production line for them. In Bulgaria these fruits are sold fresh in local shops – and the short supply chain shows in the quality. The tomatoes at the breakfast buffet were fleshy, oxheart-type, not the usual ping-pong-ball imports. For Hungarian growers of minor crops, this sales model is at least as instructive as the species themselves.

Essential oils in beekeeping and crop protection

A bee researcher spoke about using essential oils – thymol above all – in beekeeping and crop protection. The topic is close to me: it has been the subject of several doctoral theses at the Department of Plant Pathology at MATE, and I co-authored a paper on a similar subject. Essential oils act through several modes of action at once, so resistance develops slowly; dissolving into the waxy cuticle of the leaf they can give a longer-lasting effect, and in emulsion they are good surfactants.

The real opportunity is that several essential oils come from plants that can be grown in Hungary – thyme, for example, is one of the richest sources of thymol. Orange oil and thymol are already approved active substances in the EU, but approval applies to the substance and the product, and it is slow and expensive, so Hungarian herb growers hardly benefit. If food-grade essential oils could enter crop protection more simply, for example as basic substances, that would open a new market for the herb sector as well.

Plums: sharka-tolerant local varieties and a pest protected in Hungary

In the extensive organic plum orchard – to my surprise – the main problem was not sharka (plum pox, Plum pox virus), even though the disease was first described in Bulgaria. The few ‘Stanley’ trees are tolerant of it, and the Bulgarian varieties bred locally for sharka resistance even more so. These are small-fruited, honey-sweet plums, closer to the classic taste of ‘Besztercei’ than ‘Stanley’ or ‘Bluefre’ – Hungarian nurseries and breeders should take a look at them.

The most damage was done by the Mediterranean flatheaded rootborer (Capnodis tenebrionis). Its larvae infest the roots of stone fruit, especially in drought years, and can kill mature trees. Organic growers have few tools against it: the farmer whitewashes the trunks so that the black beetles climbing up in spring are easy to spot, and collects them by hand into buckets. In Hungary this species is – for now – legally protected.

The market is no easier there: it was a record year for plums, so part of the crop finds a buyer as plum brandy – rakia.

Apples: coloured netting and ‘Florina’

The intensive apple orchard works with close spacing, fertigation through drip lines, pheromone mating disruption against codling moth, and hail netting. The farmer uses the netting mainly as shade, against sunburn. He has tried white, lemon-yellow, red and, this year, black netting; in his experience red has worked best.

The ‘Florina’ variety was a pleasant surprise. In taste and texture it recalls ‘Jonathan’, but it is scab-resistant and tolerant of powdery mildew, so it can be protected well in organic production – unlike ‘Jonathan’, which is hard to protect even with modern crop protection.

What can be brought home

• Sharka-tolerant local Bulgarian plum varieties as material for breeding and nurseries.
• ‘Florina’ as a resistant, ‘Jonathan’-like variety for organic apple orchards.
• Coloured shade netting against sunburn – the colour is worth testing in your own orchard.
• For minor fruit crops, a short supply chain: fresh local sales instead of an industrial buyer.
• Crop protection with essential oils from home-grown raw material – if the regulations allow it.

Do you have an organic orchard and want to try some of this? Read more about my consulting here if you’re interested. The full, more personal travel report was published in Parasztvakítás (in Hungarian): Visszatérés Közép-Bulgáriába.