MINSK, 12 March (BelTA) - Companies from 23 countries buy Belarusian goods at the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE), spokesman for the commodity exchange Roman Yaniv told BelTA.
According to the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange, this year residents of 23 countries have purchased Belarusian products at its trading sessions. The top five markets are Russia, China, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, together accounting for about 90% of exports.
At present, agricultural and timber products enjoy the greatest demand among BUCE's foreign clients. In particular, Russia buys butter, skimmed milk powder and cheeses, China, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan mainly import timber, and Kazakhstan is the leader in purchases of Belarusian sugar. Rapeseed oil, beet pulp and molasses are traditionally in demand in the European market. The main buyers of these goods are companies from the Baltic states and Switzerland.
In January-February 2024, foreign companies concluded more than 1,500 transactions to purchase Belarusian goods for a total of $170 million. In the same period last year, the number of transactions was 155 to the total amount of $14 million.
"Exchange export figures depend on a number of factors, but, as a rule, they are strongly influenced by an increase in the number of non-resident buyers, new markets and new commodity items. The high growth achieved in January-February was the result of the work done last year. First of all, we attracted small and medium-sized businesses from Russian regions, opened a representative office in Shanghai, expanded the network of stock brokers in the countries of Central Asia, introduced a mechanism for exchange targeted transactions and stepped up cooperation with Belarusian diplomatic missions abroad. Thanks to these measures we increased exchange trade in such key markets as Russia, China and Azerbaijan, and launched supplies of Belarusian products to the Republic of Korea, Mongolia and Hungary," Roman Yaniv said.
As of 1 March 2024, 3,703 companies from Russia, 167 from China, 116 from Kazakhstan, 108 from Uzbekistan and 100 from Azerbaijan were accredited with BUCE.
