Established in 1896 the Sericulture and Agriculture Experiment Station, Vratsa (SAES) is now the biggest center in Bulgaria conducting various activities for sericulture industry development that is structured with four major departments such as Department of Research, Department of Extension Service, Department of Production and Department of Administration. The Department of Research is composed with 3 laboratories: mulberry selection/agronomic laboratory; silkworm genetics, breeding and egg production laboratory and silkworm rearing technologies/cocoon processing laboratory. Its main activities on research work are related to the genetic research on breeding technology for improvement of new silkworm lines/breeds and hybrids; silkworm egg production technology; silkworm rearing technology; mulberry selection and cultivation; cocoon and silk processing; sericulture economics and management.

Source: Self-entry in March 2014.