ENERGY COST PRESSURE, AGRICULTURAL INPUT PRICES AND FARM ECONOMIC RESILIENCE IN SELECTED MARKET FARM TYPES: COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE FROM BULGARIA AND THE EU-27

Abstract

The paper examines the relationship between energy cost pressure, agricultural input prices and farm economic resilience in Bulgaria compared with the EU-27 average. The empirical design combines three groups of official data sources: Eurostat non-household electricity prices, Eurostat agricultural input price indices, and Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN) standard results for selected specialised market farm types. The focus is on Bulgaria and the EU-27 average, with farm-type outcomes compared, energy-price dynamics analysed, and agricultural input-price developments traced for 2020–2024. Methodologically, the study applies a comparative descriptive and relational approach. Farm-type indicators are derived through weighted aggregation across economic size classes.  Four indicators are used to assess resilience: income margin, energy cost share, intermediate consumption intensity and liabilities-to-assets ratio.

The results show that the Bulgarian case cannot be interpreted as a uniform deviation from the EU-27 average. Instead, the evidence points to a strongly differentiated resilience profile across farm types. Milk and other grazing livestock display comparatively strong resilience, granivores improve between 2021 and 2023, while fieldcrops and especially mixed farms weaken markedly by 2023. The findings suggest that the main transmission mechanism operated less through direct energy cost share and more through broader pressures on intermediate consumption and financial sustainability. The paper concludes that agriculture should not be treated as a homogeneous sector when assessing resilience to energy and input price shocks, and that policy responses should be more sensitive to farm-type heterogeneity.