Bulgaria’s Economy Minister Traicho Traikov and Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos opened Saturday a new tobacco processing plant in the Bulgarian town of Sandanski.

About EUR 9.5 M have been invested in the new plant of the Greek Leaf Tobacco company and it will provide jobs for 600 people.

The new facility will be connected to the central production hall of the company in Policastro, Greece.

The plant in Sandanski, which has a production capacity of 4 to 6 tons per hour, will conduct a pre-treatment of Bulgarian and Greek tobacco.

About EUR 4,5 M have been invested in the first Leaf Tobacco plant in Sandanski, which opened doors in 1996.

“Pangalos and I established that the region in South Bulgaria and North Greece is actually becoming a mutual economic area,” Traikov said.

He has explained that the plant will process Greek tobacco, as well as Bulgarian. He noted that this would help increase the sales of Bulgarian tobacco.

“The buyers will offer competitive price and the Bulgarian producers will sell to those who offer the better price,” Traikov said.

Panaglos also said that tobacco is an important product not only for the region, but for Greece as well.

“I believe the production has to be internationalized. For many years we lived separately for different reasons and our nations were not to blame,” he said.