MINSK, 2 February (BelTA) – As part of the efforts to develop exchange-facilitated trade with the Russian Federation the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) intends to more actively attract small and medium businesses from regions of Russia. Purposeful work to that effect has been in progress since 2020 and has allowed accrediting companies from 52 constituent entities of the Russian Federation with BUCE. Deputy Head of Foreign Economic Relations at BUCE German Puzyrny mentioned it during an interindustry consultation event organized by the Belarusian office of the Russian Export Center to discuss the promotion of Russian non-resource export, the BUCE press service told BelTA.
Close attention will be paid to manufacturers of highly liquid products that enjoy solid demand on the Belarusian market because it allows accommodating interests of both sides as much as possible. In particular, Belarusian consumers are given an opportunity to promptly and on favorable terms buy the goods of Russian make that they need while Russian vendors are given an additional distribution channel and simpler access to the Belarusian market.
German Puzyrny said: “Last year Russian participants of exchange trade regularly closed deals to sell goods made of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, vegetable oils and oilcakes of oil-bearing crops, lubricants, polymer products, construction mixes as well as industrial goods and consumer ones. In monetary terms exchange-facilitated import from Russia amounted to $165 million, 11% up from 2022. Small and medium businesses contributed a lot to it. With assistance of regional export promotion centers they started working hard via the commodity exchange. The pool of Russian companies that use the commodity exchange increased by 17% to 3,610 within only one year.”
According to the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange, in 2023 residents of the Russian Federation closed 7,543 exchange deals worth a total of $307.5 million. The figures exceeded indicators of the year 2022 by 44% and 63% respectively. Belarusian merchandise export skyrocketed by nearly five times to $131 million.
