Business news

MINSK, 30 March (BelTA) – Belarus intends to ramp up agricultural exports to the CIS countries, BelTA learned from Aleksei Bogdanov, Head of the Central Office for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry.

“This year, we will put a special focus on cooperation with the CIS member states, increase the exports, expand the lineup of products, and work on joining large retail chains,” the official underlined.

He stressed that most work has been done already in the recent years. This refers to logistics and marketing; the legal framework has been formed, too. “Belarusian products are in demand in the CIS. The CIS consumers trust them. For instance, the Tajik agriculture minister said his country is keen to import more food products from Belarus at the latest session of the Belarusian-Tajik intergovernmental commission,” Aleksei Bogdanov remarked.

In his words, Belarus has similar agreements with Moldova. A Moldovan delegation is currently in Minsk on a visit. “This country is interested in importing Belarusian foods. Last year, Moldova imported over $4.7 million worth of food products, up by 16% versus 2016. We are also discussing a project to build a dairy farm in Moldova using Belarusian technologies. We plan to cooperate in such fields as crop farming and livestock breeding,” he stated.

Aleksei Bogdanov also talked about cooperation with Georgia. “Although Georgia is not a CIS member state, it is our priority to develop trade with this country. We exported $8.6 million worth of products to Georgia in 2017. The exports grew 2.9 times. There are 14 retail facilities operating there that offer a wide range of Belarusian products. During our last visit to this country, we paid special attention to joining large retail chains,” the official clarified.

In 2018, Belarus plans to increase its farm exports by 7.1%.

Last year Belarus exported agricultural products to 70 countries. Food exports to all the CIS countries went up in 2017: to Azerbaijan by 1.8 times ($10.6 million), to Tajikistan by 3.7 times ($0.7 million), to Uzbekistan by 2.7 times ($4 million).