First Organic Tahini Factory in Bulgaria Opened

On May 23rd, the first organic tahini factory in Bulgaria - BIOTERRA – IVAYLOVGRAD Ltd. - was officially opened in the village of Kondovo, Municipality Ivaylovgrad. Its opening becomes possible thanks to the expert and financial support by the Bulgarian-Dutch project New Thracian Gold (NTG) for the sustainable development of the Eastern Rhodopes.

Dr. Darko Znaor, New Thracian Gold Deputy team leader and Ms. Diana Ovcharova, Mayor of Ivaylovgrad announced the opening of the organic tahini factory.

Ms. Evgenia Mitrova and Ms. Diana Trofonova from the Directorate ‘Crop husbandry’ and ‘Organic agriculture’ at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Dirk-Hein Montagne, an expert on quality and standards and two other foreign experts -  from the Austrian Council for Agricultural Engineering and Rural Development, a leading Austrian organisation dealing with agri-environment and nature conservation and Sonja Karoglan from Ecologica, a Croatian organisation working at the cutting edge between agriculture and nature protection – attended the official ceremony. Representatives of neighbor Greek Municipality of Orestiada also attended the opening and had discussions with Dr.V.Popov on future marketing and promotion opportunities.

In 2010, a group of fellow agricultural producers from Ivaylovgrad region received knowledge and advice from the NTG project on organic growing of cereals and sesame. In 2012, NTG provided machines for improving yields, for weeding and a combiner for improving quality. As a result, the cooperators registered the ‘Bioterra-Ivaylovgrad’ Ltd. aimed at cooperation and adding value to primary produce – the NTG project helped them again by providing machines for processing of sesame to a tahini paste. The cooperative ‘Bioterra-Ivaylovgrad’ Ltd. is established to demonstrate a model for development of the organic farming and processing in a rural area of Bulgaria.

See here photos

Print this page | Send to friend