Harvest Campaign 2022

The 2022 harvest campaign started at the end of June in the village of Bozduganovo, Stara Zagora region. Host of this year’s traditional first harvest was Penyo Todorov, a member of the Thracian Union of Grain Producers. The campaign was officially opened by the National Association of Grain Producers (NAG), which also carried out the first cutting of the rye under the European project “Bread of Peace”.

The tradition of the first harvest was observed in the land of the village of Bozduganovo, Stara Zagora region. Host of this year’s traditional first harvest was Penyo Todorov, a member of the Thracian Union of Grain Producers.

In his welcoming address, the Chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers, Kostadin Kostadinov, emphasized that only a strong and well-developed agriculture can ensure the food security of the population in a united and stable Europe. He wished all his colleagues a successful harvest, high yields and excellent quality of the collected produce.

Guests at the event were the Minister of Agriculture Ivan Ivanov, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture Stefan Burdzhiev, representatives of the local authorities, as well as the chairpersons of the regional associations of NAG.

Along with the official opening of the harvest campaign, NAG also carried out the traditional first cutting of the rye under the international project “Bread of Peace”. The European initiative includes a total of 12 countries from Central and Eastern Europe. NAG has been a partner of the initiative for 10 years.

Bread of Peace

The “Bread of Peace” project is a European initiative involving twelve countries from Central and Eastern Europe, among which is Bulgaria. For the first time in 2012, the rye harvested from the field around the Chapel of Reconciliation in Berlin – the site of the former “death strip” of the Berlin Wall – was sent to each participating country.

Since 2013, the seeds of the rye from the field around the Chapel of Reconciliation in Berlin have been grown in symbolic and historically significant places of the turning point in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe that joined the European Union after 1989.

In 2014, when 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall were marked, a symbolic part of the rye harvests from the participating countries in the project was sent for the first time to Berlin. This “anniversary rye” was mixed with the rye collected in Berlin, milled and baked into a common European “Bread of Peace”.

The “Bread of Peace” project is organized with the support of the Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of Germany, Julia Klöckner, and the agricultural ministries of the participating countries. In addition to Germany, the project includes

another 11 EU Member States from Central and South-Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia.

NAG has been the official partner for Bulgaria under the Project since its very beginning. Every year, a representative of the Association of Grain Producers from a different region of the country undertakes the cultivation of the rye.

* photos: NAG