Serres Chamber of Commerce Vice President Thomas Teneketzis on Monday invited Bulgarian entrepreneurs to come to the international SerExpo 2023 fair that will take place in the North Central Greek city between September 20 and 24.
Teneketzis took part in the 87th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair which opened on Saturday and will be on until September 17.
Some 100 Greek companies are expected to attend the international event in Serres that is situated just 30 km from the border with Bulgaria.
Some 20 companies from Bulgaria participated at SerExpo 2022 within the framework of a Greece-Bulgaria cross-border cooperation project. During the winter, companies from Serres were able to present their products in Blagoevgrad (Southwestern Bulgaria).
Interviewed by BTA, Teneketzis invited Bulgarian business persons to attend SerExpo 2023, which will feature a food products fest and an accompanying concert programme.
At the 8th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, the Serres Regional Unit is represented by eleven trade and services companies. Some of them have come intending to establish contacts with business persons from Bulgaria which is an Honoured Country at this year's event, Teneketzis said.
He pointed out that the Serres area exports to Bulgaria mainly food and agricultural products and imports Bulgarian aluminum manufactures, steel, fertilizers and farm produce that are cheaper than the respective items in Greece.
The Serres businessman complained, however, of major border crossing congestions caused by the large number of holidaymakers from the Balkans, mainly from Bulgaria and Romania, who travel to Greece. As a result, the trucks of quite a few companies, both Greek and Bulgarians, have to wait at the border for as long as 7 or 8 hours on weekends.
"We have alerted the authorities about this problem, but the [border checkpoint] staff has been downsized and few officers are left. We asked for a separate cargo transport lane apart from the tourist queue because many trucks carry perishable goods but, as I said, the problem is understaffing - at least on the Greek side of the border," Teneketzis said.
