Bulgaria Yogurt Dominates 60% of Japanese Market

Japanese Ambassador to Bulgaria, His Excellency Tsuneharu Takeda, encouraged Bulgaria to increase its food exports to Japan, at a meeting in Sofia with Agriculture and Foods Minister, Miroslav Naydenov. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria has a stake of about 60% of the Japanese yogurt market, where 40 M people regularly consume the product.

This became clear at a meeting Thursday between the Ambassador of Japan to Bulgaria, Tsuneharu Takeda, and the Minister of Agriculture and Foods, Miroslav Naydenov,

LB Bulgaricum Plc. and Japanese company Meiji Dairies are working successfully on three licensing contracts for the development of dairy produce based on sour bacteria, the ministry stated.

The two companies have also signed an agreement for cooperation in relation to branding the yogurt as "Bulgaria" throughout the Asian region.

LB Bulgaricum, the only Bulgarian state owned company in the milk-processing sector, possesses the original starter culture for Bulgarian yogurt.

“At the moment, attempts are being made to broaden the market of Bulgarian yogurt in other Asian countries,” Takeda pointed out. He added that Bulgaria is also well-known in Japan for its rose oil. Exports of this Bulgarian product to Asia have consistently increased over the past few years.

“Bulgaria is an interesting importer of foodstuffs because they are quality products, delicious and ecologically pure. You should increase the export of vegetables, pork and chicken meat, as well as Bulgarian wines, to the Japanese market,” he said.

Naydenov stated that, although Bulgaria has extremely great potential in production of quality and tasty foods, regretfully over the past few years this market had not been exploited.

“Our country has turned into a net importer of foods due to bad management. The new government has the desire and will for this to change,” Naydenov said. He added that, apart from yogurt and rose oil, white brine cheese could become an attractive product on the Japanese market.

During the meeting, Min Naydenov outlined to the Japanese Ambassador the priorities of the new Bulgarian government, saying that the two main targets are the fight against corruption and the maximum assimilation of EU funds in the current financial crisis.

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