Sofiytsi (AFP) – “When the countryside starts being fed by the city, you can write off the whole country,” says Emil Deliev, as he leads his cows out to pasture in the Eastern Rhodopes in Bulgaria, where small dairy farms are disappearing one after the other. Bulgaria has seen its production fall in recent years, with rising production costs eating too much into profit margins. Milk production has been particularly hard hit — a paradox for a country whose name and reputation are closely linked to yoghurt.
