MINSK, 11 June (BelTA) – The Belarusian state light industry concern Bellegprom intends to export more merchandise to countries of the European Union, BelTA learned from the concern's Chairwoman Tatiana Lugina on 11 June.
The official said: “We have traditionally had a strong position on the Russian market for a long time. We should preserve and reinforce the position. We should also orient ourselves towards the market of the European Union. Although it is not a simple thing to do. Not because our products are not interesting or are not competitive. Import duties that considerably inflate in prices for our products in the European Union are the problem.”
In her words, the import duty on footwear varies from 20% to 28% while the import duty on textile is 10-12%. “We are looking for mechanisms, markets we can go through. We have a development strategy for every sub-branch,” Tatiana Lugina stressed. The European Union share in Bellegprom's export is close to 15%. The concern intends to increase it up to 20% by the end of the year.
The Bellegprom head stressed that the market of Ukraine and the European Union should be the second most important market after Russia. “Remote countries are well and good, but once again we have to bear in mind logistics costs, import duties, because it is not that simple to start selling all the commodity groups on Asian markets,” Tatiana Lugina said.
She also mentioned Bellegprom's interest in China. “We are working on two prongs in that direction – raw materials (high-quality linen fabric, cotton flax) and premium-quality products,” the Bellegprom head explained.
