How climate change is killing the Bulgarian pink tomato

 

The pink tomato, first grown in the Bulgarian village of Kurtovo Konare over 125 years ago, is losing a battle with a deadly enemy, the mining moth – and farmers are running out of weapons to fight it. EURACTIV Bulgaria reports.

The Tuta absoluta caterpillar, which can destroy 100% of the pink tomato crop, first appeared in Bulgaria a few years ago. This was due to the “not particularly strict phytosanitary control during unregulated import of agricultural produce”, Desislava Dimitrova, a professor at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), told EURACTIV.

As coordinator of Slow Food for Bulgaria – a non-profit association for the preservation of traditional, food and cultural diversity – she explained that Kurtovo Konare is a historical place for Bulgarian agriculture as it is where the first pink tomatoes were grown. (...)