Bulgaria, China agree on agricultural exports

SOFIA -- Two Bulgarian companies and their Chinese counterparts on Monday signed agreements of intent to export Bulgarian agriculture products involving millions of US dollars.

Bulgarian company Kabakum Group Import Export and China Sinopharm International Corporation signed an agreement of intent to export Bulgarian sunflower oil amounting to 1.5 million euros (some $1.95 million), while Vinprom Peshtera SA agreed with Sinochem Plastics Co Ltd to export to China 500,000 euros worth of wine products.

The agreements were signed during a Bulgaria-China Business Meeting, organized by Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Bulgarian Ministry of Economy and Energy, and Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Bulgaria has "potential" on exports to Asian countries, Diyana Naydenova, Director Foreign Economic Policy at MEE said at the event, attended by some 70 companies from the two countries.

These products include not only food products, agricultural goods, Bulgarian wines, milk and dairy products, products based on essential oils, especially rose oil, but also products of machine building and electrical engineering, Naydenova said.

With the help of institutions from the two sides, various Bulgarian food products, including mainly corn and alfalfa, meat and meat products, fish and fish products, milk and dairy products, have exported to China she added.

Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria Guo Yezhou said that with the joint efforts of the two governments and businesses, in 2012 bilateral trade turnover reached $1.895 billion, 29.4 percent more than in 2011.

"This growth is much higher than the overall growth of Bulgarian foreign trade, and more importantly is that China is already the second largest trading partner of Bulgaria outside the European Union," Guo said.

Speaking globally, Guo said that faced with shrinking trade and investment, China and the EU should strengthen their partnership, promote balanced trade growth, open each other's markets and resolve trade disputes through consultations.

"If China and Bulgaria jointly create conditions for development of enterprises and commercial and economic cooperation, then they can overcome the current difficulties hand in hand," Guo said.