Foreign Trade in Traditional Agricultural Products in Bulgaria: Historical Barriers and Trade Constraints

The paper examines the barriers to foreign trade in three traditional Bulgarian products – dairy products (cheese and curd), wheat, and tobacco – from the beginning of the transition to a market economy through 2024. The main argument is that, after 1990, the trade performance of these sectors has been shaped less by tariff restrictions and more by domestically driven structural deficiencies, the costs of compliance with EU requirements, logistical bottlenecks, and the concentration of export markets. The analysis combines a historical-institutional approach, placing three different types of commodities within a unified analytical framework and demonstrating that, as formal barriers weaken, various combinations of structural, non-tariff, logistical, and geopolitical constraints come to the fore. Three distinct development trajectories are identified: in dairy products, illustrated by cheese and curd, the main barrier remains the weak raw material base and the difficulty of standardization; in wheat exports, price volatility and dependence on logistics are the key factors, while non-tariff barriers are relatively limited; in tobacco, regulatory changes and geopolitical risks are decisive, particularly given the high concentration of export destinations. The historical perspective thus reveals not a single pattern of foreign trade orientation in traditional agricultural sectors, but three different regimes of trade adaptation that should be considered in the formulation of agricultural policy.