Training on "EU Good Practices" was held at the new Training Center of the Prosperity and Development for Bulgaria Association, Blagoevgrad. А това е основният текст на статията: Bulgarian and Greek experts together: SOS for endangered traditional vine varieties Training on "EU Good Practices" was held at the new Training Center of the Prosperity and Development for Bulgaria Association, Blagoevgrad. A mixed Bulgarian-Greek group of experts in the wine industry, administration and media have worked together on problems with endangered local vine varieties and global conservation approaches.
The role of professionals and local administrations in delivering results in this field from around the world was shared. The trainings were held at the new high-tech training center of the Prosperity and Development for Bulgaria Association in Blagoevgrad.
The investment is under the SOS project for endangered traditional vine varieties of the Interreg V-A Greece-Bulgaria Programme and includes modern furnishing and multimedia equipment for three rooms, which will offer the opportunity for interactive lectures and their broadcast in real-time on the Internet. Part of the training was streamed live on the organizers’ YouTube channel.
The trainings also included on-site observation of the unique vineyards of the village of Vranya, which are kind of a repository of endangered local vine varieties. On the territory of 96 acres with a lot of love and professionalism, Mr. Valery Galabov cultivates the characteristic for the region the Shiroka Melnitsa vine, Ruen, Keratsuda, Melnik 55 and Brestovitsa. And back in the years, the Merlot plantations started from seeds brought from crows that flew from France, carrying them in their beaks. Today the name of the village - Vranya, bears the logical explanation of the legend.
The participants of the event had the opportunity to work, to exchange experience and knowledge, to help protect the endangered local vine varieties characteristic of the Cross-border region Bulgaria-Greece.
Good practices from Europe and the World have been discussed regarding the conservation of local vine varieties, their management through sustainable biological methods, and their marketing positioning and market promotion.
Participants were introduced to the unique practices in South Africa's organic farming - Watercloof. They learned the recipes for spraying biological pest control products from the vineyards of Andrey Ribesek and Bolfan Vinski from Croatia and the methods for the production of vegetarian wine in Querciabella, Tuscany, Italy.
The discussions raised several issues in the wine sector, but the most prominent was the fact that in Bulgaria and Greece the cohesion and work of the organizations and associations in the area were not enough. There is a need for communication between winemakers and winegrowers, proactivity and the submission of proposals for institutional changes to the managing authorities in order to facilitate activities and bring the final wine product to market.
Working together for 3 days has made the contacts between colleagues from wine-growing and viticulture, institutions at local, regional and national level on both sides of the border extremely useful. It is expected with great interest the publication of the Handbook on Biodynamic Agriculture, which, in addition to being unique in nature, will be published in Bulgarian, Greek and Braille.
The lead partner is the Executive Agency for Vine and Wine, working together with the Association Prosperity and Development for Bulgaria, the Exhibition Research Institute, Greece and the Alexandrov Technological and Educational Institute Thessaloniki-Dpt. of Agricultural Technology (Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki-Dpt. of Agricultural Technology), Greece.