Bulgaria was once one of Eastern Europe's largest food producers. The nation's food industry has suffered since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and due to competition within the European Union. Now the country is looking to access China, where doors are opening thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative. CGTN's Aljosa Milenkovic reports.

Just outside Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv, a new economic zone is on the rise.

It already hosts the first e-commerce logistics hub for the agriculture products trade between 16 Central and Eastern European countries and China.

And food producers from all those countries send their products here to the hub's showroom.

VASIL GELEV, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR APAC BETWEEN CHINA AND CEEC "Those products are here for the purpose to make possible for the Chinese companies who are trying to buy Central and Eastern European products, to be able to see them at the one place. The idea for this is not only to show the people the companies and the products which we have here, but also to facilitate the logistics and deliveries and the trade between Central and Eastern Europe and China."

ALJOSA MILENKOVIC RAVNO POLE "It is agriculture products that Bulgaria is counting on, when talking about the exports to China. And they are pushing honey as their strong selling point, because it is considered as one of the best in Europe, and it originates from these beautiful fields in the Western Bulgaria."

In areas like this one, around Bulgaria, thousands of honeybee farmers are collecting what they are claiming is a world-class product.

SIMEON TODOROV BEEHIVE FARMER "Our honey is very dense, full of aroma and with very high quality. Bulgarian honey is usually bought only to be mixed with honey from other countries to improve the quality of their honey."

And as such it quickly found its way to Chinese customers.

RUBEN MILEV HONEY EXPORTER "We are focused on high quality honeys like the Bulgarian honey is, because it is an ecologically clean product. Because of that we can get better prices at the market. Considering that the Chinese consumers have high culture for honey quality, they understand honey and they have tradition, so they appreciate high quality products."

But those are just the first, baby steps in establishing stronger trade between not just Bulgaria, but all the 16 Central and Eastern European countries with China.

A number of obstacles are being identified from both sides, including requests from the Chinese side to relax visa rules between some of those countries and China.

On the other hand, Bulgarians would like to have simplified export procedures to China.

SILVENA YAYMANOVA, ADVISER BULGARIAN MIN. OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD & FORESTRY "Those are the long and heavy procedures for import of agricultural products and samples of Bulgarian products in our expo pavilions opened in Shanghai and Hangzhou. We consider that the first step to overcome those obstacles is to finalize as soon as possible the mutual agreements for import and export of agricultural products and to expand the trade between the two countries."

Maybe it is not all milk and honey in this business at the moment, but the promising prospects bring optimism to all parties.

Aljosa Milenkovic, CGTN, Ravno Pole in Western Bulgaria.