Business news

MINSK, 26 July (BelTA) – Cote d’Ivoire has plans to sell cocoa beans to Belarusian confectionery companies via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE), BUCE spokesman Roman Yaniv told reporters on 26 July, BelTA has learned.

“The geography of the exchange trade has expanded. In June the BUCE accredited a company from Cote d’Ivoire that wants to sell cocoa beans to Belarusian confectionery companies. They will do it through the BUCE without any intermediaries. Belarusian chocolates are expected to become cheaper,” Roman Yaniv said.

More and more companies choose to sell and buy via the exchange. All in all, 19,500 companies got accredited with the BUCE, including 4,000 foreign companies from 60 countries.

Head of the industrial and consumer goods sector at the BUCE Evgeny Miklashevich said that non-resident companies can trade with each other. “Such contracts are also registered; two or three deals like that are concluded every week. These are mostly deals between companies from the Russian Federation and the European Union. I would like to emphasize the absence of any products under sanctions or dual-use goods,” he added.

In H1 2018, the amount of exchange transactions was estimated at Br1.9 billion, up by 28% over a year earlier. Metal products accounted for over a third of the turnover; the amount of deals in this sector made up Br712 million since the start of the year, up by 30%. The trade in the timber sector increased by 32%, that in agricultural sector by 6%.

“Domestic industrial output is growing; export is on the rise. This also manifests in the exchange trade. The exchange is meant to help Belarusian manufacturers buy high-quality and reasonably priced raw materials and sell finished goods abroad and to penetrate new sales markets,” Roman Yaniv noted.