MINSK, 8 January (BelTA) - Products of domestic sugar refineries accounted for about a quarter of the total amount of export transactions in agro-industrial products, concluded in 2023 at the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE), BelTA learned from the BUCE press service.
A significant share of this group of goods in the foreign trade via the BUCE is associated with the growth of sales of sugar and by-products of its production at the exchange trading. In particular, supplies of white granulated sugar abroad increased 2.5 times to 26,000 tonnes compared to 2022, supplies of beet pulp and molasses - by 63% to 157,000 tonnes.
Last year, the main buyers of sugar on the exchange were companies from Central Asia and Europe. Kazakhstan was the leader in terms of transaction volume. A total of 10,400 tonnes of sugar was sold to Kazakhstan, which is 33% up from 2022. “Export sales have grown thanks to a good sugar beet harvest and also a significant expansion of the pool of regular buyers. If in 2022 sugar was regularly purchased at the exchange by four foreign companies, in 2023 there were 11. A similar situation was observed with the export of beet pulp and molasses, which are mainly sold to the countries of the European Union. In 2023, the exchange trading managed to attract seven new buyers from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which secured strong momentum in this commodity section,” the press service said.
In 2023, exports of Belarusian agricultural products through the BUCE increased in value terms by 65% to $155 million. Companies from 15 countries acted as buyers, with Russia, Switzerland and Lithuania among the top three markets.
