STATE AND PERSPECTIVES OF RASPBERRY PRODUCTION IN BULGARIA

Abstract

Raspberry has become a profitable fruit species for many areas in Bulgaria, owing to the suitable soil and climatic conditions for cultivation. The interest in raspberry has increased with the new economic conditions. Raspberry is the first species that has found a place as competitive crop on the foreign market. Although new plantations are created every year, yielding ones vary widely (18 440 da/1990, 10 000 da/2000 and 16 990 da/2010 years) and the resulting yields are far below the varietal potentiality (226 kg/da, 1990, 300 kg/da in 2000, and 360 kg/da 2010). However, many mistakes are made - inappropriate habitats, planting material, failure to fulfil the basic requirements, usage of varieties unsuitable for our specific conditions, lack of knowledge and implementation of the technology for creating and growing raspberry plants. Recently, there has been a consistent trend of applying high yielded varieties and modern technologies to fruit production, which will lead to high quality yields.