Tobacco harvested last year at 23,000 tonnes was down 30 per cent due to drought, the Sofia News Agency said in a report citing National Tobacco Growers Association Chairman Tsvetan Filev.

However Bulgarian tobacco prices were 20 per cent higher due to market liberalization, Filev said in a story posted on the new agency’s novinite.com website that cited Focus news agency as a source. Bulgarian growers want to increase production in particular of Oriential tobacco, he said. Filev spoke at a meeting of the UNITAB European growers association in Paris. (pi)