Deputy Prime Minister on food security, export perspectives and agro-industrial complex development.

5 июля 2020
In terms of production of this or that agricultural product per capita, our country is steadily included in all kinds of ratings of the developed countries. For example, Belarus takes the third place in the world in terms flax production, the fifth place in the production of rye, the tenth in the production of cranberries.

As for dairy products, we are ahead of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In yogurt production we rank second, in butter production we are the third, and the fourth in milk products.

Belarus is also among the top 10 meat exporters. So it is not surprising that last year we exported agricultural products for more than 5.5 billion dollars.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Subbotin dwelled on our future foreign sales strategy.

А. М. Subbotin: There is, of course, a strategic plan, and the Russian Federation is at the heart of it.  This is the segment we are holding now and I hope, we will expand it. But, at the same time, we are ready for export diversification. Almost 100 countries already know us. We try to advertise ourselves, to impose ourselves, our products, to impose our brands. 

And I believe it is our task to open as many markets as possible. Ideally, we should be open to all 200 countries. And the enterprises themselves should see how much more profitable and affordable it is to trade.

We're trying to keep track of statistics. We look at exchange quotations, world and neighboring countries' trends, neighboring markets, the main markets for grain production, we take into account the world experience and the volatility of all these markets. Everyone seems to say that there will be a food shortage, and many factories were suspended during this pandemic period, but people did not eat less, so there will be a high demand and the price will rise. But at the same time we can see that the income of the population has decreased, that is, the consumer capacity has fallen, so we keep our hand on the pulse, trying to monitor and predict all this.

So, of course, we will sell, and maybe our task, if something is not very profitable, to keep it and sell it in winter or in spring, when the price is more profitable for us. 

One of the main drivers of the agricultural sector is the dairy industry and this milk will be processed and sold. It's the same in crop production, more potatoes was planted. The President gave instructions to eliminate the buckwheat deficit in the market - 24 thousand hectares of buckwheat was sown, twice as much as last year. So, I think we'll definitely feed ourselves completely.

One of the main tasks is that we didn't have loss-making farms. We should help those farms that need additional land, additional raw materials, in some cases we should starts the process of sanitation, somewhere attract an investor, or not to grow grain where it is impossible to grow according to the physical data of the land. That is, there is no single approach, each farm has to be evaluated and an individual approach has to be developed."