MINSK, 6 November (BelTA) – Belarus' export of agricultural and food products in January-September 2020 grew by 6.1% as against the same period of 2019, Aleksei Bogdanov, Head of the Central Office for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry, told a press conference on 6 November, BelTA has learned.
“The data for January-September 2020 shows that Belarusian food products are competitive on foreign markets today. The export grew 6.1% year-on-year to make up $4.2 billion,” Aleksei Bogdanov said. Currency earnings rose $241.8 million in comparison with the same period last year. The export of dairy products increased by 5,7%, that of meat and meat products by 12.1%. The export of many other food products also went up.
Belarus tapped into 21 new markets. The country launched exports to countries in Asia (Bahrain, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka), Africa (Angola, Guinea, Djibouti, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Sierra Leone), America and the Caribbean (Belize, Paraguay, Uruguay), European Union (Cyprus, Croatia, Finland, Luxembourg). The food exports rose both to the CIS countries and non-CIS countries, including China. In January-September 2020 the export to China soared 2.3 times to reach $187.2 million. Supplies of meat to China went up three times, those of milk – 1.8 times and those of colza oil – 2.6 times.
“We are doing our best to diversify exports. Russia, however, remains our main market. We have common standards, food consumption culture and convenient logistics, that is why we try to keep our share in this market. In January-September we supplied $3.1 billion worth of products to Russia,” Aleksei Bogdanov added.