Business news

27 Feb 2019

Gomel Oblast’s merchandise export to China nearly 3.5 times up in 2018

GOMEL, 27 February (BelTA) – In 2018 enterprises located in Gomel Oblast increased their merchandise export to China by nearly 3.5 times in comparison with 2017, BelTA learned from Alevtina Savchuk, Head of the Foreign Economic Ties Office of the Economy Committee of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee.

In 2018 Gomel Oblast exported $13.5 million worth of merchandise to China while the target was $5.6 million, up from $3.9 million worth of goods delivered in 2017. The main exports were dairy products, flax, wool, sawn timber. This year Gomel Oblast intends to export at least $10 million worth of merchandise and services to China.

Alevtina Savchuk noted that the list of companies certified to export dairy products to China includes five local companies: Milkavita, the Rogachev tinned milk plant, Turov Dairy Industrial Complex, Kalinkovichi Dairy Plant, and Mozyr Dairy Products. Work is in progress to get the Chinese veterinary service to certify some Gomel Oblast companies as fit to export meat products to China in the future.

On the whole, advancing cooperation with China is one of the main directions in efforts of Gomel Oblast municipal authorities and local companies to diversify target markets. Interregional cooperation between Gomel Oblast and China advances within the framework of four agreements – with the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (signed in 2011, updated in 2018), Sichuan Province (since 2015), Jiangsu Province (2016), the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2016). Apart from that, the Gomel city administration, the administrations of Zhlobin District, Mozyr District, and Rechitsa District have Chinese partners in Jiangsu Province, Sichuan Province, and Heilongjiang Province.

The official also mentioned the European Union as a promising direction for expanding export. In 2018 Gomel Oblast exported nearly $130 million worth of merchandise to the European Union while the target was $55 million. This year’s target has been set at $58 million.