A rise of 15% in poultry meat exports are expected in 2002 over the previous year. Domestic consumption will follow the same tendency – 1,6%, with rise in production projected at 2%. According to Boris Stoimenov, head of the Poultry Producers Union, egg and poultry exports to Albania, Serbia and the province of Kosovo will start this year. Chicken meat will not be exported to European Union countries, since no Bulgarian producer has been licensed for EU exports. The EU allocates to Bulgaria an annual quota of 7,050 tons of poultry meat as only half of it is fulfilled. Traders say that wide-spread concerns about mad cow disease in Europe triggered a plunge in beef demand and increased Bulgarian farmers’ chances to export poultry meat.