Belarus and Russia will develop a long-term strategy of delivery of agricultural products produced in Belarus

By Vladimir Khromov

Belarus and Russia will develop a long-term strategy of delivery of agricultural products produced in Belarus, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mikhail Rusy announced, following the results of negotiations which took place in Moscow with the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Arkady Dvorkovich

“We stated that our economies work as a single whole,” Mikhail Rusy said.

He reminded that recently the Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, gave instructions to prepare a new programme of food safety of the Russian Federation. “The Belarusian side will work in this matrix,” the Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus noted. “It is a common necessity for us to provide food safety for the Customs Union, the Union State.”

The sides also agreed to carry out joint action on possible mutual investment in agricultural production in order to replace imported production with goods which can be made in Belarus and Russia. “And the third direction is a uniform farming policy. It is already approved at the highest levels, and I think it will be soon adopted,” Mikhail Rusy said.

According to him, during the last two years, Belarus and Russia accurately work on the balance of delivery of foodstuffs into the Union State. “This system allows us to correctly distribute volumes of output, knowing the specific consumer,” Mikhail Rusy noted. He said that Belarus and Russia agreed within a month to define the balance of delivery of foodstuffs for 2015, with defined volumes on kinds of production.

In the meantime, Belarus is ready to increase till the end of the current year, its deliveries to Russia by 15-50 percent depending on which kind of foodstuffs. According to Mikhail Rusy, delivery of dairy products, for example, could be increased by 40-50 percent and potatoes — twice.

Additional deliveries of Belarusian production will, first of all, be directed to Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad Region. This year, Belarus expects quite a good harvest of potatoes, and the Belarusian side is ready to deliver over 1 million tonnes to Russia. “Belarus has modern storehouses, so, according to the schedule, we can deliver the needed volumes of potatoes each month to Russian shops in a way which the consumer needs,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

He added that, as a whole, following the result of the year’s exports, Belarusian foodstuffs will make $6.3-6.5 billion.