TWO Bulgarian companies and their Chinese counterparts in Sofia yesterday signed agreements of intent to export Bulgarian agriculture products worth millions of US dollars.

Bulgarian company Kabakum Group Import Export and China Sinopharm International Corp signed the deal to export Bulgarian sunflower oil worth 1.5 million euros (US$1.95 million), while Vinprom Peshtera SA agreed with Sinochem Plastics Co to export to China 500,000 euros worth of wine products.

The agreements were signed during a Bulgaria-China Business Meeting, organized by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy and Energy, and the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Bulgaria has "potential" on exports to Asian countries, Diyana Naydenova, director of foreign economic policy at MEE said at the event, attended by some 70 companies from the two countries.

These products include not only food products, agricultural goods, Bulgarian wines, milk and dairy products, products based on essential oils, especially rose oil, but also machine building and electrical engineering products, Naydenova said.

With the help of institutions from the two sides, various Bulgarian food products, including corn and alfalfa, meat and meat, fish and fish, milk and dairy, have exported to China she added.

The Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria, Guo Yezhou, said bilateral trade hit nearly US$1.9 billion last year, up 29.4 percent from 2011.

"This growth is much higher than the overall growth of Bulgarian foreign trade, and more importantly that China is already the second largest trading partner of Bulgaria outside the European Union," Guo said.

Guo also said China and the EU should strengthen their partnership, promote balanced trade growth, open each other's markets and resolve trade disputes through consultations.