site.btaBulgaria-Germany Trade May Exceed EUR 10 Bln in 2022

This year Bulgaria has a chance to achieve a new record and exceed EUR 10 billion of trade with Germany, said Aneta Grouytcheva, an economic adviser at the Commercial and Economic Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Berlin, in an interview with BTA.

For the first eight months of 2022, exports to Germany exceeded EUR 4.4 billion and imports - 3.4 billion. Trade in goods amounted to nearly EUR 7.8 billion, compared with 6.4 billion in the same period of the previous year, she said.

According to Grouytcheva, there is an unexhausted reserve in Bulgaria’s relations with the federal states of the former East Germany, which have made remarkable progress in their economic development in recent years. 

She pointed out that the series of crises is a huge challenge, but at the same time an opportunity that we should take advantage of, because German companies are looking for alternative ways to carry out their activities at relatively close geographical distances and under more favourable production conditions.

"The competition is strong, but Bulgaria has a lot to offer and we should be the proactive party in this process," the Bulgarian commercial attaché in Berlin told BTA.

The main interest from domestic companies in Berlin is to develop activities in the fields of construction, IT technologies and the creative economy. According to Grouytcheva however the German market is easier to enter than to stay in.

"German businesses are looking for accuracy, quality and precision and if the high level cannot be sustained then trust is quickly lost. What is worse, this damages Bulgaria's image, which, as we know, is very difficult to recover. There are Bulgarian companies that have already established themselves for years on the German market as reliable and honest partners, and I am sure that this costs them daily efforts," she said and recommended participation in exhibitions and fairs in Germany to those companies that want to do business in the country.