Cheese billion

Belarus occupies one of the leading places in the world in the export of cheese and annually expands the geography of supplies

In 2021, our country earned $1 billion from cheese exports. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Belarus accounts for about 6 percent of world cheese exports, a third of production in the EAEU. Moreover, Belarus occupies the 4th place in the world cheese export ranking after the European Union, the USA and New Zealand. Why not push those competitors too? The prospects are large-scale, the opportunities for growth are enormous.

Got through to Antigua and Barbuda

How much do you know about the above Caribbean islands? Their residents, by the way, highly appreciated the quality of Belarusian cheeses. And it is true. Last year, our enterprises have already organised trial deliveries there.

In particular, the geography of our export deliveries is steadily growing: in 2016, there were 19 countries on the list, in 2018 — 24, last year — 26. At the same time, almost the entire volume of cheese — 99.8 percent — is exported to the CIS countries. Russia’s share in exports exceeded 93 percent.

Products with a total value of almost $912 million were delivered to the markets of the neighbouring country, which is about 110 percent compared to January-November 2020.


Sceptics will say: what about the promised diversification of sales markets? In the structure of Russian cheese imports, Belarusian ones still occupy the first place. Sooner or later the situation may change in favour of local producers. Therefore, it is risky to completely depend on one direction, even if it is the most profitable. Considering the market situation, our enterprises have been studying other promising proposals for several years. 
Why do the numbers remain high? This is because export volumes are growing in all directions. One of the significant events of 2021: Belarusian Cheese Day was held in Tokyo. By the way, Japan is the world leader in the import of dairy products.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food noted that last year supplies to Kazakhstan increased by 18.5 percent, to Ukraine — by 36.6 percent, Uzbekistan — by 67.5 percent, to Moldova and Azerbaijan — by 44.2 and 44.1 percent, respectively, to Kyrgyzstan — by 2.9 times. 

In turn, Belarusian producers delivered almost 225 tonnes of cheese to the countries of Asia and Oceania worth about $985,000, which is 2.8 times higher than the same period last year. Mongolia and Georgia had the main share in the volumes of deliveries. In addition, the delicious products were presented on the shelves in Jordan, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia. The first deliveries of cheeses were organised to Afghanistan.
Almost 87 tonnes of cheese worth more than $450,000 were exported to the countries of America and the Caribbean, which also exceeds the level of 2021 by more than 2 times. We increased the supply of cheeses to the United States of America to $430,000 (2.5 times higher than the same period in 2020).

Simple arithmetic

Many foreign analysts are amazed at the rapidly developing dairy market in Belarus. We are among the leaders in the post-Soviet space. However, it is a mistake to look for the dependence on the population, the number of cheeses consumed per capita. This indicator is not high yet. The dairy industry is largely export-oriented: while saturating the needs of our own market, we are increasing supplies abroad. And there is an important point to remember. Firstly, the development of production depends on a well-coordinated, well-thought-out strategy for the development of not only the processing industry, but also dairy cattle breeding. The enterprises invest in the modernisation of farms and complexes, the purchase of high-yielding livestock just as much in volume as in the technical re-equipment of production facilities, realising that the result largely depends on the quality and quantity of incoming raw materials.
Here is another important example that the producers pay attention to: the focused specialization of many enterprises, as well as the long traditions of cheese making, contribute to the improvement of product quality.

Blue to white mould

Dairy processing enterprises are constantly working on the development of new types of rennet cheeses. The output of soft cheeses increased by 2.6 times over five years. The leader in this segment is the Turov Dairy Industrial Complex, which produces cheese using Italian technologies. The enterprise mastered the production of a number of import-substituting types of products: soft cheeses Mozzarella, Mascarpone, Ricotta, Cream Cheese, Cremolle — about 60 types in total.
 Recently, the Molodechno Dairy Plant announced in the media the release of innovative products in 2023: the company plans to master the production of Camembert-type cheese with white mould (the cheese is most popular in France). The first batch is going to be released in the first quarter of 2023, subsequently increasing production to 3 tonnes of cheese per day.

Expansion of the assortment list is not only the prestige of the enterprise, but also an opportunity to strengthen its financial stability. After all, this means that they are able to organise high-quality production.

“92 percent of all Belarusian cheeses are hard and semi-hard types, 8 percent are soft, pickled and processed cheeses,” comments Lyudmila Bogdanova, Head of the Laboratory of Butter and Cheese Making Technologies at the Institute of the Meat and Dairy Industry of the Republican Unitary Enterprise Scientific and Practical Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Food. “The list has expanded significantly in recent years. Moreover, almost all types are represented in retail chains — hard, semi-hard, soft, brine-ripened, moulded from a layer and in bulk, cheeses with a low and high temperature of the second heating, including those using propionic acid bacteria, cheeses with blue mould such as Roquefort, or Raclette ripened using brevibacteria, there is a very large assortment of cheeses with cheddaring and thermomechanical processing of the Sulguni type.

FACT

Over 400 types of hard and semi-hard cheeses are produced in Belarus. For 11 months of last year, enterprises produced 259,000 tonnes of fat cheeses, of which 223,000 tonnes were hard and semi-hard. In 2021, Belarusian cheeses were supplied to 26 countries of the world.



NUMBERS

For 11 months of 2021, enterprises exported 230.5 thousand tonnes of cheese worth $976 million. The growth rate compared to the same period in 2020 amounted to 110.4 percent in physical terms and 111.7 percent in value terms, respectively.




By Diana Bernikovich
Open source photos