A regular meeting of the Business Council of the Agro - Food Industry was held in the town of. Jebel
On 07.04.2023 at 13:00 in the meeting room of the Municipality of Jebel was held another regular meeting of the Business Council in the Agri-Food Sector in the border regions of Blagoevgrad, Haskovo, Kardzhali and Smolyan, the activity is implemented under the project "Business Council - BC 6275" funded by the INTERREG V/A GREECE-BULGARIA 2014-2020, Subsidy contract № B6.3a.18/13.04.2021.
The meeting was attended by six representatives of the sector from the border regions of Haskovo, Kardzhali, Blagoevgrad and Smolyan. The meeting room was technically equipped with multimedia, laptop, printer, as well as information boards, banner and presentation materials according to the requirements of the Communication and Publicity Manual of the Interreg V/A Greece-Bulgaria 2014-2020 Programme. In addition, disinfectants as well as water, coffee and tea were provided to secure the coffee break of the event.
The moderator of the event welcomed all the participants and started the event by making a brief presentation of the Rules of Procedure of the BS in the Agro - Food Sector.
At the beginning of the free discussion, the attendees of the meeting told the team about the tobacco farming developed in the past on the territory of the municipality. In the 1950s, tobacco became the most important export product of Bulgaria, as the Jebel tobacco area was one of the most productive and the tobacco produced in Jebel was of the highest quality. Unfortunately, in recent years the depopulation and the conditions in the municipality (increasingly small and fragmented areas for tobacco production). Those present shared with the team that this fragmented production and the extremely manual labour made it almost impossible to form tobacco growers' associations.
Everything listed so far by the members of the business council, outlines a trend of a sustained decline in tobacco production. This, in turn, is leading to an increasing lack of interest in growing, both from the population and the municipality.
The BS members expressed their desire to work together with the municipality to promote the traditional tobacco production in the region. To turn its cultivation into an attractive tourist product that will attract more and more young people to return to their roots, taking advantage of the natural conditions that the municipality of Djebel has.
The project management team has committed to raise the issue of tobacco at the upcoming meeting with local authorities.
