Determining the Nature of Competition in Bulgarian Food Industry

Abstract

The highly competitive environment for the food industry after the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union puts companies under conditions where the focus is on the quality and products’safety. Both the competitiveness theory and the topic of food safety have been widely discussed in recent years, and research in this area is growing, but there is a lack of in-depth information in the Bulgarian literature on the relationship between competitiveness ↔ food safety systems and the open question of how strategies food safety would increase corporate competitiveness. Examining this relationship, it is possible to uncover those factors stemming from the requirements of food safety systems, the improvement of which can help the food industry companies to increase their competitiveness. The subject of the study is the different approaches and methods of assessment and analysis outlining the opportunities for increasing the competitiveness of enterprises from the food industry through the implementation of food safety systems. The report aims to reveal the interrelationship between competitiveness and food safety systems and the implementation of methodologies to increase their competitiveness. The study and assessment of factors to improve the competitiveness of food business enterprises through the implementation of food safety systems is based primarily on expert judgment as well as on marketing and diagnostic analysis. Emphasis is placed on factors that arise from the requirements of food safety systems and a few extras that are important for the formation of strong competitive advantages.