As part of the project “35 Years without the USSR”, corresponded Georgy Zotov visited Germany, looking for the memories of the not so distant past. The article below appeared in “Argumenty i Fakty” on February 27, 2026.
“It was terrible.” What happened to Bulgarian products, beloved in the USSR?
Bulgarplodexport, Slynchev Bryag and ketchup were extremely popular in the Soviet Union.
I am looking for the famous Bulgarian ketchup in the Plovdiv supermarket, which was loved by all families of the USSR. Glass bottle, ribbed surface, red lid. No, it’s not to be found. They say it’s still there, in very small shops, produced in negligible quantities. But Heinz is offered everywhere — from America, also Austrian, German ketchups, and even French one.
A ketchup counter in a Bulgarian supermarket.
I manage to find Bulgarian as well, in a standard plastic package. “It’s not profitable to produce in glass,” the saleswoman tells me. — “Plastic is popular everywhere. And that ketchup had a different recipe — it had a more tomato flavour, much less sugar. Now the American standard is everywhere, chemicals instead of tomatoes, and it’s very sweet.”
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