Bulgaria aims to put dairy products on China-EU Geographical Indication list

There are several food products of which Bulgaria is proud, with the country's unique cheeses among them. Now the country is hoping some of its best cheeses will be added to the Geographical Indicators list, an index of regional products created by China and the EU to protect certain goods from imitation.

We went to one of the country's remote areas to see how one small dairy farm has the GI list in its sights, working to protect its tradition and the quality of its products. 

It took three hours to drive north east from Bulgaria's capital Sofia, to the Balkan mountains. Close to the town of Vratsa is where one of the country's most productive dairies is found.

The farm and the Parshevitsa dairy is nestled in a pristine environment over 1,200 meters above sea level, and is where some of Bulgaria's best cheeses are made. There are no factories around, no pollution, just an abundance of fresh air, clean water, and unspoiled grass. 

Only 25 employees work at the Parshevitsa plant, but they produce 700 tons of dairy products every month. These include the famous Bulgarian yoghurt, butter, and cheese and all of those are made from locally produced milk.

Gergana Damianova, Parshevitsa dairy's Chief Technologist, explained to us why their products are the best in the country.

"I am happy to work for this company, as we can 100 percent guarantee that our products are made just from milk and nothing else," Damianova explained. "We don't use, like all the rest, powdered milk, we don't use stabilizers, so white cheese, yoghurt, kashkaval, all of that we made using only milk."

Parshevitsa Dairy exports some of its products to the UK, Slovenia, and Italy, but the bulk are sold in domestic markets. That may be because the health benefits of Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, bacteria unique to Bulgarian dairy products, are well known here. 

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Now the government is trying to do more to put these products on the GI list, to promote Bulgarian dairy products internationally.

"Inclusion of these products in the list gives the Bulgarian producers an opportunity to enter the markets of other countries," Ivana Statkova, Chief Expert of Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture, told CGTN. "We also hope that would help create a positive opinion among the Chinese customers about these Bulgarian quality dairy products."

Currently, rose oil and wines from two regions are the only Bulgarian products included on the China-EU GI list. Now the lengthy process of registering Vratsa's dairy products has started in the hope that a third product will be added, extolling the health benefits of the dairy products from this region to a wider clientele.

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