site.btaBulgarian Businesses Expecting to Secure New Trade Partners at 87th Thessaloniki International Fair

Bulgarian businesses are expecting to secure new trade partners from their participation at the 87th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, which is being held for the 87th time. Bulgaria is Honorary Country at the fair, which started on September 9 and continues until September 17.

Some 60 Bulgarian companies from the sectors of high-tech and IT, construction and infrastructure, food industry, transport and machine building are exhibiting at the fair in Pavilion 13 on an exhibition area of over 2,500 sq m. The Bulgarian participation is organized by the Economy. BTA was told that more than 150 meetings have already been held on the spot and 250 via a platform between 150 companies from the Bulgarian and Greek sides.

The launch of two new projects was announced by Bogdanov on September 9 - the first cargo flights of the Bulgarian company Dronamics, which will be launched on the Greek market, and the new programme of EnduroSat to launch into low orbit a satellite constellation that will provide huge opportunities for the development of new technologies for security, environmental monitoring and early prevention of natural disasters.

BTA got in touch with some of the Bulgarian business representatives on site, including those from EnduroSat and Dronamics. The companies said that the opportunity to meet with international participants was an important way for them them to create new contacts or to strengthen existing ones.

The Endurosat programme is expected to start next year. The goal of the Bulgarian Sentinel Program is to observe over the earth with the idea to receive in Bulgaria and the Balkans data from space in almost real time - within 15-30 minutes, EnduroSat Ground Segment Lead Lyubomir Toshev explained for BTA.

"This data can be used by the industry for various purposes, but it is even more valuable when there is a disaster, for example a fire is spreading or as happened with the floods in Bulgaria and Greece. You can find out very quickly that such an event will occur soon or to identify which are the most affected areas so that the institutions can focus on them when it has already happened and there are consequences," he added.

The constellation will consist of 250 satellites that EnduroSat company will produce. They will have multispectral sensors on board that will be give enough information in high resolution and will be able to see not only visible light, but also invisible to the human eye, such as infrared light, Toshev pointed out. Endurosat wants to partner with the Bulgarian government, but also with other governments in the Balkans, so it can be of regional benefit, he noted.

Greece is a key market for Dronamics, one of the founders of the company, Konstantin Rangelov, told BTA. Greek logistics company Golden Cargo is one of Dronamics’s partners. “We are working with the relevant regulators locally to open our corridors and bases,” he explained.

Rangelov noted that there is a great interest is shown in Greece regarding the activities of Dronamics and the main reason is that the country has three hundred inhabited islands, for which the supply is particularly important. However, the necessary infrastructure for aircraft is not available everywhere, while this is not a problem for the company's cargo drones. The exact date of the first flight in Greece depends on the completion of the test program - the ambition is for it to take place before the end of the year, but it might be early next year, Rangelov pointed out.

"The participation in the Thessaloniki Fair is an opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to the other participants for the purpose of cooperation. Тhe personal contact we can establish and the ideas that can be generated to find different solutions are the most valuable thing for me," he said.

“It's not so much the technical side of the process that is difficult, but the regulatory side, because no such solution has existed before and we understand the caution of the regulators,” Rangelov explained. “We are working with them to find a way to integrate our solution into the existing aviation ecosystem and make it safe for everyone on the ground and in the air,” he stressed.