MINSK, 8 December (BelTA) – The food embargo is designed to somewhat protect the domestic market and manufacturers, Chairman of the Standing Commission on Regional Policy and Local Self-Government of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Mikhail Rusy told the SB. Belarus Segodnya newspaper, BelTA informs.
“As for milk, we export 60% of milk and dairy products. We fully meet the domestic demand for these products. As for imported cheeses like parmesan, hard and soft cheeses, domestic companies produce a broad variety of such cheeses. Moreover, many of our products outdo European ones both in terms of quality and price. The same pertains to beef. We have enough of beef, we export a lot of it. We also sell over 250,000 tonnes of poultry all over the world,” the senator said.
According to him, European and Belarusian poultry farms use the same technologies. However, Belarusian manufacturers use fewer antibiotics, which makes our products even healthier.
“Therefore, these measures are a kind of protection of the domestic market. They are justified, right, adequate and timely. And every manufacturer on the other side should think what their governments are doing by imposing sanctions against us. They will not bring us to our knees, they will not destroy our market, only their own markets. All this will affect profits of their manufacturers. And repercussions will be felt by their farmers and processing companies. We weren't the first to start. The countries that made this unfriendly move started it first. Yet, it is not such a big deal. We have enough food. Food security is ensured at many levels. This pertains to assortment, amount and quality. We are ready to compete with any European country,” Mikhail Rusy said.
