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exports. If anything, this suggests that consumer goods, mainly clothing, ceased to be the major drivers of exports to the EU, as they were in 1997-99.

**Table 17:** _Composition of fastest growers (above 30 percent on average over 2000-03) in EU markets by End-Use (in millions of US dollars and percent)_

||Exports|(millions|of US d|ollars)|Average<br>growth rate|Share in|exports<br>(inpe|of top pe<br>rcent)|rformers|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||<sup>2000</sup>|2001|2002|2003|2000-03|2000|2001|2002|2003|
|Foods and feeds|12.7|34.5|159.7|86.8|61.6|11.7|13.0|31.6|12.8|
|Industrial raw materials|21.2|48.8|68.7|99.4|47.1|19.5|18.4|13.6|14.6|
|Automobiles and parts|1.0|5.2|9.1|14.7|95.8|0.9|2.0|1.8|2.2|
|Machinery, excluding automobiles|40.5|74.5|136.4|244.4|56.7|37.2|28.0|27.0|35.9|
|Consumer Goods|33.5|102.6|132.0|234.9|62.8|30.7|38.6|26.1|34.5|
|of which textiles|12.1|23.5|47.5|74.2|57.5|11.1|8.8|9.4|10.9|
|clothing|2.3|4.2|7.5|14.9|59.9|2.1|1.6|1.5|2.2|
|Total(in millionofUS dollars)|108.9|265.7|505.9|680.3|58.1|100.0|100.0|100.0|100.0|
|Memo: Share in total exports to EU|3.8|8.5|15.4|15.9||||||

Source: Based on EU Data from UN COMTRADE Statistics.

Table 18 identifies top ten four-digit products that experienced the fastest growth in EUoriented exports over 2000-03. Except for sands (SITC 2733) and other wheat (0412), all of them are manufactures each with the value of exports exceeding US$ 1 million in 2003. None of these exports exceeded US$ 500,000 in 2003, and top three exported less than US$ 100,000. Except for blooms (SITC 6725), with exports worth US$ 12 million in 1997, and halogenated derivatives (5113), with exports of US$ 1.2 million in 1996 and US$ 1.8 million in 1997, not a single product exceeded the one-million dollar benchmark in 1996-2000. Last but not least, it is worth noting that except for air conditioners (7415) and photographic parts (8811) the shares of other products in EU external imports exceed the share of total Bulgarian exports in EU imports of 0.37 percent in 2003.

**Table 18** : _Ten four-digit SITC sectors with the highest growth in exports in 2000-03_

|||Exports<br>('000$)|Average growth of<br>exports|Share in EU<br>imports|Average growth in<br>share|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|SITC-4|Product|2003|2000-03|2003|2000-03|
|7415|Air conditioning machines. self-contained|3,412|434|0.10|403|
|5113|Halogenated derivatives of hydrocarbon|2,610|384|0.44|368|
|8811|Photographic, cameras, parts & access|1,078|203|0.11|242|
|7451|Tools for working in the hand, pneumatic|3,305|196|0.43|174|
|6725|Blooms, billets, slabs & sheet bars|21,694|182|1.33|165|
|2733|Sands, natural, of all kinds|4,772|158|4.62|148|
|7758|Electro-thermic appliances, n.e.s.|24,693|158|0.64|126|
|0412|Other wheat (including spelt)|13,262|156|1.70|118|
|6760|Rails and railway track construction|2,179|146|1.57|92|
|6781|Tubes andpipes,of cast iron|2,032|144|5.18|109|

Source: Based on EU Data from UN COMTRADE Statistics.

Among products with the compound annual growth rate of exports over 2000-03 exceeding 30 percent, electro-engineering industry (SITC. 76 and 77) clearly stands out. Its share in these exports grew from 6 percent in 1997 to 12 percent in 2001 and 14 percent in 2003. More significantly, while in 1996-2000 exports of electro-engineering products had merely kept pace with the growth in EU import demand, with their aggregate share fluctuating between 0.08 percent and 0.09 percent; Bulgarian firms outperformed other exporters each year in 2001-2003. The share of these products in EU external imports increased from 0.08 percent in 2000 to 0.16 percent in 2001, 0.26 percent in 2002 and 0.39 in 2003.<sup>12</sup> The latter value was above Bulgaria’s 12 In consequence, the share of Bulgaria in EU external imports of machinery increased from 0.09 percent in 2001, which equaled the peak level reached in 1996, to 0.15 percent in 2002 and 0.17 percent.