Bulgaria: Potato Crop Halves in Four Years to 94,000 Tonnes as Imports Reach 48,321 Tonnes
Bulgaria harvested 94,000 tonnes of potatoes in 2025, down 17% on 2024 and from 196,000 tonnes in 2021, MZH data show. Imports of 48,321 tonnes now equal about half of the domestic crop.
Bulgaria harvested 94,000 tonnes of potatoes in 2025, according to the agrostatistics department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MZH), as reported by Agri.bg. This is 17% less than a year earlier and more than 100,000 tonnes below 2021, when the country produced 196,000 tonnes.
Eurostat data confirm the figure: 94,030 tonnes in 2025, down from 113,940 tonnes in 2024. The area stayed almost the same at 6,800 hectares. The fall came from yield. The average was 13.83 tonnes per hectare, the lowest since 2012 and well below the 21.25 tonnes reached in 2019.
The long decline
In 2000, Bulgaria harvested 397,500 tonnes of potatoes, Eurostat data show. In 2002, the crop was 627,300 tonnes. In 2008, potatoes covered 21,700 hectares. Since then, the area has fallen by about 69%. For 2026, Eurostat lists 6,000 hectares, about 12% less than in 2025.
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Potatoes are still Bulgaria’s second-largest vegetable crop after tomatoes. Total vegetable output in 2025 was 574,000 tonnes, with tomatoes at 105,000 tonnes, the ministry data show. Agri.bg notes that the fall in potatoes is a long-term trend and not only the result of the poor weather in 2025.
Growing import dependence
Bulgaria now imports about half as many potatoes as it grows. Eurostat trade data for fresh potatoes (HS code 0701) show imports of 48,321 tonnes in 2025 and 44,351 tonnes in 2024. Exports are almost zero, at 251 tonnes in 2025. A simple balance of production and trade suggests that local potatoes covered only about two-thirds of fresh-potato supply in 2025.
Imports have been stable at 42,000–52,000 tonnes a year since 2019, while the domestic crop has fallen. So the share of imported potatoes on the market is growing.
Why it matters
Bulgaria’s potato sector is shrinking in both area and yield. Low yields, below 14 tonnes per hectare in 2025, make local potatoes expensive to grow and harder to sell against imports.
For foreign potato suppliers, Bulgaria is a growing market. For local growers and seed suppliers, the key question is irrigation and seed quality. Without better yields, the smaller 2026 area points to another year of high imports.
Photo: Farmland near the village of Goran, Bulgaria (illustrative). Ceco7101 / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
