Bulgaria's rose harvest reached 9,555.9 tonnes in 2026, up 31% on last year, agriculture minister Plamen Abrovski said. Growers picked 6,607.8 tonnes in 2025.

The figures came out at a meeting of the advisory council on oil-bearing rose, attended by deputy minister Yanislav Yanchev along with industry bodies and people from the sector.

Processors took in 9,308.7 tonnes this season, about 98% of the crop, and processed 9,290.4 tonnes — 41% more than the year before.

The state will build a lab to check the quality of rose oil. The cabinet has already approved the plan and set aside the money. Abrovski says the lab will guarantee quality and build trust in Bulgarian rose oil.

"The state needs to be able to guarantee at any moment that what's being sold is a genuine product," he said.

The agriculture ministry also wants a separate EU budget line for oil-bearing rose, written into EU rules, on the same model used to support milk. Bulgaria has proposed adding a new item called "special payment for the oil-bearing rose crop" to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy rules, funded from the CAP budget. The minister said the goal is to give the sector its own money that doesn't depend only on decisions made at home. Bulgaria will push for this wording in the new CAP, covering the period after 2027.

"Roses are our biggest priority right now. I haven't stopped raising the issue of support for this sector at every EU agriculture ministers' meeting in Brussels," Abrovski said. The EU's Agriculture and Fisheries Council met in Brussels earlier this week.

The meeting also covered the state of the sector, crop protection products, labour, more lasting support for growers, and the quality and competitiveness of Bulgarian rose oil.

As of 30 September 2026, registered rose fields cover 5,336 hectares, with 2,975 growers on the books. The register also lists 82 rose oil processors and 57 sites that process rose petals.

Officials have started work to bring the register in line with what's actually growing in the fields. In 2027, during the bloom, they will carry out a full new count of the rose fields.