The Balkan country is EU's second largest producer of the delicacy, with some 5,000 people employed in the sector, according to Dimitar Belorechkov, head of Bulgarian Poultry Breeders Association.

Mr Belorechkov told Novinite that geese and ducks are no longer forced to live in cages in Bulgaria, adding that he expected the proposed ban to be canceled.

However, Yavor Gechev from the Four Paws international animal welfare NGO has said that force-feeding ducks and geese is damaging their livers.

A group of European MPs has called for an EU-wide ban on the production and sale of foie gras. The famous French delicacy is made by force-feeding ducks and geese, a process described by animal rights groups as "torture".

Currently, farming of animals to produce foie gras is banned in 22 EU nations but it is allowed in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary and Spain.