12.09.2017 / Pilot Project Bulgarian – Chinese Demonstration Yogurt Farm

In the village of longevity Momchilovtsi, Bulgaria and China laid the foundations of a new chapter in their relations based on mutual benefit and cooperation.
Representatives from the Chinese company “Bright Dairy” together with officials from the Bulgarian government and the APACCCEEC laid the first sod in what is to be the first of its kind Bulgarian – Chinese Demonstration Yogurt Farm. The pilot project is under the Initiative “16+1 Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park”. The new project has the aim to bind the modern Chinese technologies with the intransitive Bulgarian traditions.
During the opening ceremony, an old Bulgarian tradition was honored, to lay a time capsule in the foundations of the farm which is to serve as an example of the good relations between both countries for the future generations.
The ceremony coincided with the annual Yogurt fair of the village of Momchilovtsi which this year was under the motto “Yogurt – the new Silk Road”.

Achieving progress on this initiative together with others such as the cooperation between China and CEE countries in the format of 16+1 has been defined as very important for the development of the grand Chinese project “One Belt, One Road” in its political, industrial and economic aspects. The project aims to build a bridge between the European and Chinese markets in what is the process of controlled, mutually beneficial globalization. The APACCCEEC as part of OBOR and the 16+1 initiative understands and supports the aims of its Chinese partners as it appreciates the projects influence on the bilateral relations between Bulgaria and China and development of the multilateral relations between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

The start of the pilot project is a direct consequence of the events from the 24 of May 2017 when Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture Tsvetan Dimitrov and his Chinese colleague Mr. Zhang Taolin, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China signed a joint declaration for the establishment of the “16+1 Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park”.
The “16+1 Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park” Project has also been directly supported by the agreements and understanding reached between China and the CEE countries in the framework of the 2nd Meeting of China

CEEC Ministers of Agriculture at which the Chinese minister of Agriculture Han Changfu pledged his country’s full support for the deeper and ever increasing cooperation, exchange of experience and good practices and the security of global food chains between the countries of the format. He presented the “16+1 Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park” as a good example of this cooperation being achieved. Minister Han Changfu also expressed his support for Demonstration Parks and Joint Laboratories to be build all over Central and Eastern Europe.

During the conference a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Agricultural Trade Promotion Center by the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China and the Association for the Promotion of Agricultural Cooperation between China and CEE countries.