This week Bulgarians in the country and abroad have the opportunity to cast their ballots for the third time in 2021. Meanwhile, the slogan “Do not go picking mushrooms, go to the polling stations”, as the saying goes in Bulgaria meaning to occupy yourself with something else entirely instead of going to the polls, is topical again. It gained popularity during the years of transition, when voter turnout was extremely low and people were bitterly disappointed by the political parties and their leaders. However, this article is not focused on the new politicians, which sprout like mushrooms, but on the wild forest mushrooms, which are the principal means of livelihood in some villages in the Rhodope Mountains.

In 2021, the price of many mushroom species hit record highs. However, the number of mushroom hunters who can afford to stroll across the forests from sunrise to sunset has decreased significantly. Mushroom picking is a seasonal employment and is highly dependent on the meteorological conditions. The long drought during the summer of 2021 affected mushroom yields.

The yield of mushrooms across Europe hit record lows after July 15. As a result, the price of some species skyrocketed. Now, one kilogram of King Bolete costs around 50 Leva (EUR 25). I have never seen such a price increase before, explains Yulian Kolev who owns a factory for processing and export of forest mushrooms. Yulian is an engineer, but he has been selling mushrooms for more than 30 years now. He exports his produce only to Europe. In his words, Bulgarian mushrooms are among the world’s five best mushrooms.

“I would not say that Covid-19 is a problem for us. However, there were no mushrooms between July 15 and October 15, because of the drought. Besides, our business is seasonal and no fresh mushrooms are picked between November 15 and April 15. It turns out that in years like 2021 we have fresh produce for only 3 months. This is our biggest problem- we need to provide year-round employment to our people, in order to maintain the structure of our enterprises.”

Nearly 200 mushroom species grow in Bulgaria. However, only 14 or 15 have industrial or trade importance. Therefore, mushroom pickers know them well and can tell edible mushrooms from poisonous mushrooms in the wild. “The weather has been good recently and mushrooms started to grow again. However, temperatures will drop to 0 degrees Celsius this week. Mushrooms grow when temperatures exceed 12-14 degrees. You cannot expect to pick mushrooms if temperatures are 5 degrees or below”, Yulian Kolev explains. 

“The King Bolete (Boletus edilus) is mainly exported to Italy and chanterelle sells well in Germany and France. Mushrooms are not a vital food. That is why they become more and more expensive. Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey are Bulgaria’s main competitors. Mushrooms also grow well in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. We export our produce to seven or eight countries. Most of them are located in Western Europe. The price of mushrooms varies and depends on the balance between supply and demand. An individual price is negotiated for each shipment. As for the frozen mushrooms, a large quantity of mushrooms remained unsold last year, because of the closure of the state borders. As a result, prices of mushrooms were extremely low in the spring of 2021, because we had to use last year’s produce first.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov