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18 October 2019, 14:09

Belarus, Romania intend to cooperate in sheep breeding

MINSK, 18 October (BelTA) - Belarus and Romania intend to develop cooperation in sheep breeding, Aleksei Bogdanov, Head of the Main Department for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry, told the media ahead of the meeting of the working group on cooperation in agriculture and food established within the framework of the Belarusian-Romanian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, BelTA has learned.

The working group meets annually in Belarus or Romania. “We try to visit as many agricultural companies as possible in order to spur trade and to identify new areas of our interaction. This time our Romanian colleagues visited many breeding farms. We will focus on cooperation in breeding livestock. Romania has a well-developed sheep farming. In turn, Belarus has just resumed the program in this sector. We are very interested in the Romanian experience in sheep farming and would like to apply it here, in our country, especially in the development of farms,” Aleksei Bogdanov said. According to him, the issue of purchasing Romanian breeding sheep is under consideration.

Lelior Iacob, the director general of the national reproduction agency at the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, praised the Belarusian breeding sector. The Romanian side is interested in the Belarusian cattle genetic material. The foreign partners were impressed by the milking equipment and will discuss the possibility of cooperation on this front too. “As for sheep farming, we are ready to help Belarus develop this sector. We have a lot of wool, and we can supply it to Belarus too," he added.

In January-August 2019 Belarus' exports of agricultural products and food products to Romania amounted to $1.188 million (up almost two times year-on-year). Major exports are flax, flour, onion, garlic, salt, fruits and nuts, fish. Imports of agricultural products from Romania in January-August 2019 totaled $2.042 million (including corn, bread, flour confectionery, apricots, cherries, peaches). The working group will look into the areas of further development of trade relations.

Belarus cooperates with Romania in terms of support in the certification of Belarusian enterprises for export to the European Union. This applies to milk, poultry and other goods. The EU market is quite difficult to access due to food safety requirements, customs duties and high competition among both EU producers and third-country suppliers. Exporters are subject to sanitary and veterinary certification by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. This procedure is lengthy and may involve repeated inspections by European auditors.

Several Belarusian companies have EU export certificates. Among them are Santa Bremor, Verkhnedvinsk cheese factory, Bereza cheese-making plant, Slutsk cheese-making plant, Savushkin Product and its production branches in Stolin and Pinsk, Morozproduct, Molochny Mir dairy and some others.

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