Why Bulgaria uses only 25% of its mineral water resource and the rest flow into the rivers and the Black Sea? And why Bulgarians drink twice less mineral water than the average European, since 5,600 liters of crystal clean water spring every second from the earth? There are over 240 mineral springs in the country, but only 30% of them are currently used. The rest of the mineral water resource is used to fill mineral pools, baths and Spa centers. The healing properties of Bulgarian mineral waters were very famous among the Roman aristocracy which once used to live on these lands. Why then such a precious natural resource is not fully used at present?

Bulgarians drink less than a glass of mineral water a day on average and Bulgaria is far behind countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and Greece in this ranking. The middle-aged Bulgarian women top the local rankings regarding mineral water consumption. Of course, those who prefer to substitute the dirty tap water for clean spring or mineral water are also among the biggest consumers. Moreover, Bulgaria has the cheapest mineral water in the whole of Europe and twenty five types of Bulgarian mineral water were acknowledged in the EU.

Unfortunately, only 6% of the mineral water in Bulgaria is bottled. This is so, because the water sources and the qualities of the mineral waters have not been fully examined. Only 23 concessions for production of mineral water were granted so far out of 102 water deposits owned by the state. Therefore, many mineral springs are not being exploited at all.

The export of mineral water is also meager. People across the globe are used to drinking their local water and the country must make an aggressive and strong advertising campaign, in order to persuade these people to switch to different kinds of water. Although the Bulgarian drinking waters have very good qualities and are suitable for everyday consumption, representatives of this sector claim that the Bulgarian product is expensive. Nearly 90% of the final price is formed by the packaging, rather than by the expenses for the otherwise cheap labor or the fact that concessionaires operating in Western Europe deal with the severe competition with new light bottles and caps. The expenses for long distance transport (over 500 kilometers) are also very high. That is why, the Bulgarian business targets neighboring and near countries such as Romania, Greece, Montenegro, Albania, etc. The Middle East countries have long ago been conquered by Western European water giants. The key to the consumers in China which is the second biggest non-EU importer of Bulgarian mineral water after Turkey are the small packages and large quantities.

There are fifteen companies which currently bottle mineral water in Bulgaria. Three of them are owned by European concessionaires. They have the right to use only 4% of the water resource and managed to bottle just half of the permitted quantities. This fact initiated changes in the Bulgarian water legislation. The amendments will enable more than one concessionaire to use a given water spring. Thus, new companies will be able to enter the market. The latter provoked a sharp response of current concessionaires which threatened to turn to the European Commission. The companies do not use the resource at their full capacity, because the market demand is limited, representatives of the sector comment. Moreover, the water bears the name of the deposit and spring and if ten companies for example bottle mineral water at the same deposit, only the labels of the mineral water will be different. Thus, none of the potential investors would spend millions on brand recognition. On the contrary, the business demands from the state to start advertising the Bulgarian mineral waters abroad, instead of threatening the investors. Thus, the mineral springs will be used more effectively and foreign trade would loom.

One needs to make huge investments in order to remain competitive on the market and position successfully his brand abroad. Despite all difficulties, the Bulgarian mineral water reaches markets such as the USA, Malta, Cyprus, China, Moldova and Libya among others.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov