MINSK, 5 April (BelTA) - Enterprises of the Belarusian state food industry concern Belgospishcheprom increased their supplies to the EU in March 2022, Belgospishcheprom Chairman Oleg Zhidkov said in an interview to the STV Channel, BelTA has learned.
“The March statistics of the Belgospishcheprom enterprises show that the volume of supplies to the EU markets increased. This applied not only to salt but to other types of food as well,” said Oleg Zhidkov.
The Belgospishcheprom chairman noted that China would not be able to replace Ukraine for all export positions. For example, Belarus has huge salt production capacities, but it is not profitable to ship this product to China due to its minimal cost and maximum logistics costs. “We understand very well that it is impossible to replace the Ukrainian direction with the Chinese one for this position. At the same time, there are other markets available today, including the European Union,” he said.
As for the Chinese direction, it is not easy to organize deliveries there in the shortest possible time. This is especially true for food products. “There is traditionalism in the markets of the East, including the consumption culture, taste preferences, the structure of products that have been present in these markets for centuries,” Oleg Zhidkov said.
At the same time, Chinese partners are actively interested in Belarusian products. “I can say that the activity of visiting our enterprises by Chinese partners was the highest in 2018-2019. It was important for them to understand whether we can meet their growing demands and needs in terms of the quality of products and how reliable partners we are in terms of building long-term relationships,” the Belgospishcheprom chairman said.