Innovative Practice Bulgaria: A case study from the Plovdiv region

Post-communist dairy farming in Bulgaria is a typical example of domination of subsistence and small scale farms with little or no commercialization opportunities. Moreover, rapid development of markets and the institutional environment present serious challenges for adaptation for the majority of dairy farms and processors. Therefore, a positive case for the successful inclusion of dairy producers in marketing channels would be interesting to study and replicate elsewhere.

This paper presents a business model for an effective market inclusion of numerous small scale dairy farms from the Plovdiv region developed by a private entrepreneur. The "Dimitar Madzarov" Ltd dairy was set up in first years of the transition and successfully modernised up to the highest industry standards. This enterprise has managed to adapt to the dynamic market and institutional environment, effectively governing relations with supplying farmers and downstream partners.

This publication forms part of the Regoverning Markets project.