MINSK, 26 February (BelTA) - Belarus plans to get domestic potato producers certified for compliance with the EU requirements, Aleksei Bogdanov, Head of the Central Office for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry, told the media, ahead of the third international forum “Agriculture in Belarus”, BelTA has learned.
“We are now actively working to get Belarusian potatoes certified for compliance with the EU requirements. We have already applied for recertification of our lands. The European Commission is considering our proposal, and we will continue to work on this issue,” Aleksei Bogdanov said.
In 2018 Belarus' potato exports amounted to $50 million, down by 28%. “We are aware of this problem, and we will discuss it today. This is due to the fact that we focused more on the Russian market which has been growing rapidly. Potato production has been on the rise in the EAEU countries. Therefore, geographic diversification will become a pressing issue. We need to move away from dependence on one market, build up exports, improve the quality of products and implement modern digital technology,” Aleksei Bogdanov noted.
The third international forum “Agriculture in Belarus” in Minsk has been organized by the Produkt.BY magazine with the support of the Agriculture and Food Ministry of Belarus. The mission of the forum is to help Belarusian agricultural industry advance technologically, find new markets, product niches, partners and customers. The event has brought together representatives of agribusiness from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and other countries.
Leading domestic and foreign experts in feed production, rapeseed processing, potato growing and horticulture, representatives of science, financial institutions are set to discuss the principles of precision farming, husbandry, innovation horticulture, agricultural chemistry, organization of manufacturing processes, management, digitalization, means of monitoring and navigation.
