Opinions & Interviews

TBILISI, 21 March (BelTA) – Belarus is carving out more niches in Georgia’s imports, Belarus’ Ambassador to Georgia Mikhail Myatlikov told BelTA.

In his words, over the past year and a half Belarus has considerably expanded the lineup of its exports to Georgia. “The product range exceeds 300 commodity descriptions today,” the diplomat said.

Belarus exports products for almost every sector of Georgia’s economy: food products, farming machinery, trucks, medications, furniture, petrochemical products, tires, synthetic thread, and cable.

In Georgia there are more than ten stores (including two chain stores) that sell Belarusian food products. Products of many Belarusian manufacturers are present in other retail networks of Georgia such as Goodwill, Carrefour. These are not only food products but also, for example, hosiery, cosmetics, the ambassador said.

“We constantly analyze the Georgian imports from other countries. Georgia, by the way, has established free trade regimes with the CIS countries, the EU, Turkey. A free trade agreement with China went into effect on 1 January. Of course, this creates serious competition. But at the same time,) the share of Belarusian products accounts for 15% of the total imports of Georgia in terms of milk and cream (commodity code 0402) 12% in terms of butter, 9% - cheese, 20% in terms of sausage products and meat products. These are positive examples. I want to say that our share in the import is very serious,” Mikhail Myatlikov said.