Business news

8 Apr 2020

Belarus, China sign memorandum of strategic cooperation in agriculture

An archive photo

MINSK, 8 April (BelTA) – The Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry and the Belt and Road Working Committee of the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises have signed a memorandum of intent on strategic cooperation for the period of five years, BelTA has learned.

“We are ready to cooperate with your association and maintain trade relations with China. We want to promote mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries and strengthen direct contacts between our business communities,” Belarus’ Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister Igor Brylo said.

The memorandum of intent deals with the export of Belarus-made agricultural products (including poultry meat, flax and dairy products) and foodstuffs, as well as high-quality raw materials for Chinese traditional medicine. The document also seeks to promote investments. China will help establish a platform to facilitate the export of Belarusian products to China and the sale of these products in China’s biggest cities. This platform will also be used to find business partners in China and to set up a center to assist SMEs in Belarus. The working committee will be authorized to work with the Chinese government and businesses to promote cooperation with Belarus. There are plans to launch joint ventures in the two countries.

“We are convinced that this memorandum will give a boost to our trade with small and medium enterprises of China. The working committee includes companies that manufacture and process dairy and meat products as well as flax fiber that we would also like to ship to China,” Aleksei Bogdanov, Head of the Central Office for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry said.

In January-February 2020, the export of Belarus’ agricultural products to China nearly doubled over the same period of 2019 to reach $18 million. Growth was reported across virtually all the agricultural exports. For example the export of meat products tripled ($8.6 million), the delivery of dairy products rose 16% ($4.7 million), the export of flax fiber expanded 6% ($1.8 million). “Chinese consumers liked our poultry and beef a lot. Almost all our dairy companies, meat and poultry producers are able to export to China,” Aleksei Bogdanov said.



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