On November 6th, the 16th Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum was successfully held in Shanghai as a concurrent event of the 6th China International Import Expo. The forum was hosted by the State Administration for Market Regulation and co-organized by the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, the Development Research Center of the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum. Vladislav Spasov, Consulate General of the Republic of Bulgaria in Shanghai, attended the opening ceremony of the forum and delivered a speech at the Keynote Speech.
Vladislav Spasov, Consulate General of the Republic of Bulgaria in Shanghai, delivered a speech
Dear Chinese leaders,
Dear Colleagues,
Dear Friends,
女士们，先生们，大家好！
First I would like to express my gratitude to the State Administration of Market Regulation, Shanghai Municipal People’s Government and National Health Commission of Peoples’ Republic of China for inviting me to participate in today’s event.
Bulgaria has a very special place in the dairy industry. Yoghurt is a traditional Bulgarian product. In our lands it dates back to the Thracian times some 4 000 years BC. The Thracians learned to add sour sheep milk to fresh milk in order to preserve it longer. Therefore, a product named “prokish” or leavened milk was created.
Of course many countries make yoghurt, However, Bulgaria’s contribution to the discovery of this product does not remain in the Thracian era. Closer to our time a Bulgarian scientist discovered the bacteria that produced yogurt, which of course was unknown to the Thracians and the rest of Humanity until that moment. I am talking about the year 1905 when the Bulgarian physician and microbiologist Dr. Stamen Grigorov identified the bacteria responsible for milk fermentation, which we nowadays know as Lactobacillus bulgaricus.
At the beginning of the 20th century a study was carried out around the world on the number of centenarians and their proportion in each country. Surprisingly, the result showed that the country where the most centennial population lived was Bulgaria. The study established an unequivocal correlation between the longevity of the Bulgarian population and its high consumption of yoghurt. Even today if you travel to Bulgaria you will find a considerable population of quite old people who are still fully active and in very good health because they regularly consume our yoghurt.
If you try traditional Bulgarian yoghurt, you’ll immediately feel the difference in taste: it has a slightly sour flavor unlike yoghurts from other countries where it is customary to give it a more neutral flavor, or even slightly sweet. The texture is gelatinous rather than creamy. People who have tried many yoghurts around the world agree that none of them tastes equivalent to Bulgarian yoghurt. We love our yoghurt and proved by the numbers: Bulgarian population of 7 million people consume approximately 400 000 tons of yoghurt per year. In consumption per person, Bulgaria is the largest consumer in Europe with average 60 kilos a person per year.
Bulgarian yoghurt enhances the balance of intestinal microflora in general, and especially after antibiotic therapy. Clinical trials show that in children (aged 5-12 years) yoghurt consumption increases levels of secretory Immunoglobuline A (IgA) and improves their immune defense. C Calcium from yoghurt is better absorbed by children too. Important to mention is also the fact that trials on animals show the consumption of yoghurt has anti-radiation effect.
The original starters for Bulgarian yoghurt are symbiotic co-cultures of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus strains isolated from natural sources. Bulgarian yoghurt contains very high numbers of viable bacterial cells: at least 100 million Streptococcus thermophilus and 10 million Lactobacillus bulgaricus cells per gram. The number of viable bacterial cells is a strict requirement of the Bulgarian State Standard. To preserve the symbiotic relationship between the two bacteria in the starter for Bulgarian yoghurt, selected combinations of strains are co-cultured together for many years. This makes our yoghurt different from other fermented milk where the bacteria strains are cultured separately.
Therefore, to the question: how to enhance brand competitiveness and stimulate the development of dairy industry, especially in the production of yoghurt, my answer is very simple – use original Bulgarian starters that my country exports all over the world. As a result of the long-term process of isolation of lactic acid bacteria from raw milk, fermented milk, home-made dairy products and plants, the number of strains of lactic acid bacteria in the collection of Bulgarian companies has reached 700. We have starters based on combinations specifically developed for the production of fermented dairy products, desserts and drinks with dairy products. In order to respond to the demands and expectations of customers, Bulgarian starters contain combinations of diverse, well-characterized strains with very good technological properties. If you want to advance in the sector and secure leading position, I advise you to rely on genuine products that maintain good health, stimulate metabolism and provide customers with beneficial micro-organisms, this can be easily achieved with incorporating Bulgarian starter cultures in yoghurt production.
The theme of the forum is, ‘Deepening the Belt and Road Cooperation in Agriculture and Food: Jointly Creating a Better Life for Humanity.’ Leaders from the State Administration for Market Regulation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Health Commission, General Administration of Customs, as well as leaders from Shanghai, Henan, Hainan, and other provincial governments, representatives of provincial market supervision departments, representatives of relevant United Nations organizations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and embassies of South Africa, the Netherlands, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Tanzania, Senegal, among others, along with over 400 delegates from domestic and international enterprises, participated in the forum. Guests collectively deliberated on agricultural cooperation and food industry development, contributing insights and strategies for the high-quality development of agriculture and food industries in the Belt and Road Initiative, highlighting the role of the forum as a platform for policy interpretation.
2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative and the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum. Over the past decade, the forum has been successfully held for 15 sessions within the framework of the National Food Safety Publicity Week and the China International Import Expo. The forum has solidly promoted high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, extensively conducted exchanges and cooperation in the agricultural and food industries, played a significant role in the development and safety of agricultural food industries in the countries along the route, and facilitated smooth international trade among the Belt and Road countries.
