site.btaBulgaria Becomes Partner of AGRA 2024 International Fair in Slovenia

Bulgaria has become the partner country of the AGRA International Fair of Agriculture and Food for the first time in the summer of 2024. The 62nd edition of the festival took place between August 24 and 29 in the Slovenian town of Gornja Radgona. Following tradition, a tree symbolizing the partner country was planted on August 24. Thus, Bulgaria has been symbolically present in the fair's park with a dogwood tree, considered a sacred tree and associated with youth and novelty, the Bulgarian Embassy in Ljubljana said on Thursday.

The fair opened with welcoming remarks by the Director of the Pomurski sejem (Pomurje fair) company, Janez Erjavec, Slovenia's Agriculture, Forestry and Food Minister Mateja Calusic, Slovenian Parliament Speaker Urska Klakocar Zupancic, and Bulgarian caretaker Minister of Agriculture and Food Georgi Tahov, who was on a three-day visit to the country with a delegation, the Bulgarian diplomatic mission said.  

Tahov thanked the organizers for holding the event, which provides an opportunity to showcase the achievements, innovations, rich palette of crops and agricultural heritage of the region. "Today we present the high quality and variety of traditional Bulgarian food and drinks. Their specific taste is due to our fertile lands, diverse climate, intergenerational links and committed farming community," the Minister added. He emphasized that Bulgaria's participation is also an opportunity to strengthen existing partnerships and create new ones.

Graduates from the National School of Dance Art in Sofia took part in the fair's cultural programme. They performed dances and horo (Bulgarian folk dance) from different ethnographic regions of Bulgaria. Their participation was supported by the Bulgarian Culture Ministry, the Embassy added.

The diplomatic mission also pointed out that Bulgaria's stand, with an area of 160 square meters, was visited by Mateja Calusic, Urska Zupancic, ministers of agriculture and state secretaries from Southeast Europe, accompanied by Minister Tahov. The head of the Bulgarian delegation met 14 Bulgarian companies, producers of dairy and meat products, honey and bee products, wines, nuts, essential oils, as well as exhibitors of agricultural machinery.

Within the framework of the Bulgarian participation in AGRA and the "Meet4Business-AGRA2024" events, a bilateral business forum was organized on August 28.