Business news

MINSK, 14 October (BelTA) – Today Belarus sells its food products to 77 countries, BelTA learned from the National Statistics Committee of Belarus.

Belarus is among the countries with self-sufficient agricultural production. Belarus’ food security is high and shows a positive trend. The country leads the CIS in per capita production of potatoes (675 kg in 2017), meat (127 kg), milk (771 kg), eggs (375). Belarus is the fifth largest producer of grain (842 kg) and vegetables (206 kg).

In 2017, the country produced twice as much meat per capita as in Russia and Kazakhstan. In per capita milk production, Belarus is ahead of Kazakhstan (by 2.5 times), Armenia, Ukraine and Russia (by 3-3.6 times). In ensuring food security, an important role belongs to the production of grain, the gross production of which (in post-processing weight) amounted to 8 million tonnes in 2017 and exceeded the level of 2010 by 14.4%.

This year’s harvest season is not over yet. As of 1 October 2018 the gross grain harvest (except for corn) amounted to 5.3 million tonnes, the gross harvest of sugar beet - 1.4 million tonnes, vegetables – 81,600 tonnes, potatoes - 580,300 tonnes.

In 2017, the production of livestock and poultry (slaughter weight) exceeded the volumes of 2010 by 24.4%. Milk production made an increase by 10.5%, egg production by 0.6%.

The country’s trading network provides the population with food products in full. As of early 2018, about 17,000 food stores (30% of the total) operated in Belarus. Today, there are 18 food stores per 10,000 people.

In January-August 2018, trade organizations sold food products worth Br13.6 billion. In the structure of retail trade, food products accounted for 53%. The consumer market is provided with food products mainly through the domestic production. Among the food products sold by trade organizations, domestic products account for 79.5%.

Agricultural production in Belarus is a guarantee of adequate food supply for the domestic market and an important source of foreign exchange earnings. In January-August 2018, the export of food products amounted to $2.837 billion, or 12.9% of the total export of goods.