Climate change threatens Bulgarian pink tomato

Published 2023년 3월 2일

Tridge summary

The article highlights the challenges faced by the cultivation of the unique pink tomato variety from Kurtovo Konare, Bulgaria, due to the inroads of the tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta. This pest poses a significant threat, capable of destroying entire crops, including pink tomatoes, which have a unique characteristic of having a long shelf life despite their thin skin making transport difficult. The changing climate, particularly warmer temperatures, is allowing more survival of leafminer larvae through winter, leading to increased tomato-feeding moth populations. Desislava Dimitrova, a professor involved with Slow Food for Bulgaria, underscores the historical significance of this region to Bulgarian horticulture and the challenges it faces due to these pests and climate change.

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Original content

The pink tomato grown in Bulgaria is losing the battle against the tomato leaf miner. The Tuta absoluta caterpillar, which can destroy 100% of the pink tomato crop, first appeared in Bulgaria a few years ago. Desislava Dimitrova, a professor at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), is the 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 horticulture, as the first pink tomatoes were grown here. The life of the local population has been permanently linked to the cultivation of vegetables for decades. The Kurtovo Konare pink tomato has a very thin skin, which makes it difficult to transport, but the advantage is that it has a very long shelf life; it can last more than ten days without ...

Source: AGF