Business news

MINSK, 6 April (BelTA) – Belarus is ready to provide assistance to Russia with developing its dairy industry, Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats told journalists on 6 April, BelTA has learned.

Earlier on, Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said Russia wants to ensure a 90% of domestic products on the dairy market and intends to totally substitute imports in the future.

According to Leonid Zayats, Belarus does not worry about this statement. On the contrary, Belarus can learn something from Russia and is ready to share its experience with Russia taking into account the situation in the dairy cattle breeding in Russia. “I do not think that today there is a need to turn aside from Belarus. Our country can offer its experience. We are ready to help Russia promptly accomplish the tasks my colleague has set. Probably, Belarus’ experience and practical assistance could be of help,” the minister stressed. In his words, the Russian partners have been making a lot of requests to provide assistance with supplies of breeding stock, construction of dairy farms, exports of the necessary forage harvesters, seeds, and other things.

Moreover, there is a favorable epizootic situation in Belarus. “Our animals do not have leukemia or tuberculosis. We have a healthy breeding stock, without anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, and so on. This is due to Belarus’ experience, so why not explore it and use it in Russia with the help of Belarusian specialists,” Leonid Zayats added.

“This statement does not frighten us. We have been diversifying our markets, which is seen from last year’s results: our exports to Russia went down, but we ramped up exports to the CIS countries, China, and the Middle Eastern countries. This statement makes us even more confident about increasing our presence on these markets,” the minister stressed.

Leonid Zayats considers the competition between Belarusian and Russian manufacturers to be healthy and does not see any reasons to put up artificial barriers in the Eurasian Economic Union. “This is healthy competition. We do not need to be afraid of our competitors. If we limit supplies to our closest neighbor, this will not benefit even Russian manufacturers, in my opinion. Our common Eurasian market should get filled with food products from the EAEU territory. Rather than importing, say, dairy products from Uruguay, New Zealand and so on, we had better consider the opportunities of the EAEU countries that have cooperation agreements. We should remain partners to achieve the goal set by the presidents of our countries,” Leonid Zayats Summarized.