MINSK, 26 August (BelTA) – Companies affiliated with the Belarusian food industry concern Belgospishcheprom have been making inroads into the Chinese market, adapting products to that market, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Subbotin told reporters, BelTA has learned.
"It is very important that the Belarusian president and the president of the People's Republic of China maintain friendly relations. This gives us a very big head start. Our farmers and processing companies have been working very hard on this front, tapping aggressively into new markets. We supply food to 114 countries. China is one of our major markets,” Aleksandr Subbotin noted. “Our product line did not take off on the Chinese market five or six years ago in connection with different consumer preferences. The Chinese market requires different packaging, different flavors and, in general, a different product. For example, chicken feet, which we process here, are in great demand there. But cheeses do not sell there."
"Thanks to persistent work, our products are gaining visibility in the Chinese market. They are delicious, environmentally friendly, useful, and organic, and this message is beginning to resonate with local consumers. In January-May of this year, our food export to China rose by 47% over last year, which was a successful year. We will keep working," Aleksandr Subbotin noted.
On 26 August, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Subbotin and head of Belgospishcheprom Concern Anatoly Buben met with the head of state to report on the state of affairs in Belarus' food industry, food export.
"We can say that we have gained a foothold in the Chinese market. In 2020, our export tripled to $15 million. We are thinking of increasing export of confectionery, alcohol, beer, sugar. Last year, we sold 20,000 tonnes of sugar to China, and this year we agreed on 30,000 tonnes," Anatoly Buben told reporters.
As BelTA reported, the companies affiliated with the Belgospishcheprom Concern are developing special recipes adapted for the Chinese market. For example, the latest products include a line of chocolate sweets "Lucky Chucky" with a low sugar content, a line of chocolate without sugar. Recipes of vodka with an alcohol content of 69% and 77% have been developed especially for the Chinese market. In 2021, Belarus expanded an export commodity range and shipped the first batches of fruit baby food, oatmeal and signed a beer supply contract. In general, from 2016 to 2020, Belgospishcheprom's export to China increased 10 times and amounted to almost $ 15 million.
Belgospishcheprom is studying the demand and preferences of Chinese consumers, manufactures products for international exhibitions in China for marketing research. So far the Belarusian food concern has made, for example, marmalade with tomatoes, celery, zefir with ginger flavor, dried red bilberry with red pepper flavor.
