VINARIA took place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from 20 to 24 February 2024.
The International Exhibition of Vine-growing and Wine producing VINARIA is the most prestigious platform for the wine industry in Southeast Europe. It showcases a rich selection of drinks: from authentic local products to global brands, from well-established traditional tastes to new tastes and modern flavors in the wine and spirit catalogs.
VINARIA combines product diversity with its technological nature and production format presented through ancient and modern technologies, modern equipment and materials. The exhibition is a reference point for the future of the wine industry with the innovations it presents in the field of grape varieties, processing methods and equipment, and quality control systems.
This is the reason why VINARIA attracts specialists, wine journalists, key traders and connoisseurs.
The 31th edition of VINARIA is again organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry with the cooperation of the National Vine and Wine Chamber (NVWC) and in partnership with the Agricultural Academy.
VINARIA 2023 key figures
Exhibitors: 120 companies from 11 countries
Visitors: more than 40,000 local and international visitors
Growth in terms of exhibition area: 8%
Media coverage: 230 publications in various media
Industrial innovations
The technological zone of VINARIA is a dedicated space for innovations in all segments of the viticulture and wine industry. It is a kind of large-scale panorama of innovations in the industry: from new grape varieties and techniques for creating vineyards to equipment for processing raw materials and storing the finished product.
City of Wine and Delicacies
It is the most important stage for premieres of new collections of wines, spirits, foods and delicacies for professionals and consumers in Bulgaria. The spacious exhibition area and its attractive vision create opportunities to organize outstanding tastings, product presentations, master classes and other events.
Unique ambiance. City of Wine
The vision recreates the style and spirit of Bulgarian Renaissance houses and streets to provide a different meeting environment between manufacturers, traders, specialists and consumers.
VINARIA focuses on the idea of creating a network for partner interaction and a marketing platform for communication with consumers and customers in a unique environment. The representatives of the wine industry and their counterparts communicate in a unique ambiance where the magic of wine and the secrets of its production are revealed. This facilitates contacts, removes communication barriers and creates business connections that are essential for business for dozens of specialists and connoisseurs from Bulgaria and Europe.
The Executive Agency for Vine and Wine reports huge interest in the program for investments in wine enterprises, announced the executive director of the agency, Eng. Krasimir Koev, during the press conference on 20.02.2024 preceding the opening of the specialized exhibitions Agra, Winery and Foodtech at the Plovdiv International Fair.
Bulgarian wines are of extremely high quality and in 2023 they won 127 gold medals in all international competitions. There are currently 360 wineries operating on the territory of the country, of which 109 have foreign participation. By the beginning of the grape harvest campaign, another 15 new enterprises will enter into operation mode.
“Our technologists are at the world level and such a forum as Agra, in particular – Winery, gives everyone the opportunity to show what they have produced, so that they can realize larger quantities of these achievements” – announced Koev.
In Bulgaria, there are 60,011 hectares actually planted with vines. On this basis, the European Commission, after a thorough inspection, gives the country the opportunity to increase the viticultural potential by 1% per year and so on until 2030. This means that every year the country has the opportunity to increase the potential of the vineyard by 6,000 decares, he said Koev.
Of the planted 60,011 hectares, 15,882 ha are protected designation of origin, 20,548 ha – protected geographical indication and 23,581 ha.
There are 41,432 registered grape growers with vineyards. The new vineyard register, financed by Eurostat, started work in December 2023. At the moment, absolutely all data on the country’s vineyards are being updated.
The Restructuring and Conversion Program allows up to 75% subsidy for the renewal of vineyards and every year between 10 and 11 thousand hectares of vineyards in the country are renewed with new ones to be more competitive compared to the old ones. Koev recalled that in the old areas, 240-260 vines per hectare were planted, and now – 500-550 vines per hectare, for greater yield, more competitive and more resistant to absolutely all climatic conditions.
Regarding the dissatisfaction of the producers of wine grapes, who receive smaller subsidies than the producers of dessert grapes, was pointed out that the team of Minister Kiril Vatev is working towards unifying the subsidies in our country and in Europe with a deadline of 2027.
According to Krasimir Koev, the import of wine from third countries is not aggressive and he pointed out that in 2022, 17,173,355 liters were imported to our country, and in 2023 – 11 million liters. At the same time, in traditional wine producers Italy and France, wine imports are 37% and 40%, respectively.
Bulgarian wine, in terms of quality and price, is very good, and in the last 10 years there are no people who have consumed wine and had health problems, summarized the head of the agency.
Photo: www.fair.bg
