MINSK, 30 November (BelTA) – Since the launch of the import substitution platform at the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) at the end of May 2022, companies from ten Russian regions have already concluded deals on it acting both as sellers and buyers of import-substituting goods, Head of Foreign Relations at BUCE Aleksandr Bashliy said at the round table “Russia - Belarus. New cooperation opportunities” held as part of the Russian Industrialist 2022 international forum in St. Petersburg, BUCE Spokesman Roman Yaniv told a BelTA correspondent.
“Cooperation between Belarus and the Russian Federation in exchange trade in import-substituting goods is developing dynamically. Our platform has already been used by companies from Moscow Oblast, Leningrad Oblast, Smolensk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, Tula Oblast, Oryol Oblast, Novosibirsk Oblast and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, as well as from the Republic of Tatarstan. The biggest amount of transactions fell on electrical equipment, lighting devices, furniture and plastic products. All these products are equally in demand both in Belarus and in Russia, so the Russian participants acted as buyers and sellers. The trade in import-substituting items was estimated at more than RUB290 million,” Aleksandr Bashliy said.
In general, this year the Belarus-Russia exchange trade is demonstrating robust growth. This is mostly attributed to a significant number of new companies from Russia registering at BUCE.
“Earlier Russian enterprises preferred over-the-counter operations on the Belarusian market, now we are seeing a different trend - a steady influx of new participants from Russia. Since the beginning of the year, almost 300 resident companies of the Russian Federation, or about 10% of the total number of Russian clients of the commodity exchange, have been accredited with us. As a result, in January-October the amount of transactions involving the Russians approached RUB10 billion, up 80% year-on-year. Naturally, this lags behind our capacity, and by the end of the year the figure will be bigger,” said Aleksandr Bashliy.
Founded in 2004, the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange conducted its first trading session in June 2005. BUCE is one of the largest commodity exchanges in Eastern Europe. Its main function is to assist Belarusian enterprises with export and foreign companies with entering the Belarusian market. BUCE sells a wide range of metal, forestry, and agricultural products, industrial and consumer goods.
