Belarus tastes. Which of our products have found their way to China, Africa and America?

By the end of the year, to launch the production of pressed Milk sweets according to the Chinese recipe - this was the task set by the Head of state. Our newspaper has learned that the original sweets are already ready for production. We asked the manufacturer when we would see the new product on the shelves and where IT would be exported , as well as which Belarusian products had already found their way to China , Africa and America.

Pressed sweets according to the Chinese recipe are no longer so much a sweet as a food. Consist of skimmed milk powder and natural flavoring - fruit powder. One 2-gram candy contains more nutrients than a glass of milk.

“Almost everything is ready for production: ingredients, recipes have been selected, taste, appearance, packaging have been determined ,” says Ekaterina Polyakova, Deputy General Director for Production of Babushkina Krynka OJSC . - We are at the final stage of all coordination with the Ministry of Health and other authorities to obtain a package of permits. A comprehensive laboratory test of compressed milk sweets is required, as a result of which we will receive a declaration of conformity of the product. In fact, this is his pass to the market.

By the way, Belarusian milk candy is somewhat different from its Chinese counterpart. The sweetness from the Middle Kingdom is harder, similar to candy, ours is softer.

- Recently, partners from the PRC came to Mogilev. We tried Belarusian candy and really liked it,” said Ekaterina Georgievna.

Nevertheless, first of all, the new product will hit the domestic market. Over time, they plan to supply it for Export, including to China.

So far, the main share of Belarus' dairy product exports to the Chinese market is skimmed milk powder (60%), whey (about 30%), and whole milk powder (9.2%). In addition, our country supplies Meat to the Celestial Empire , however, as raw materials and semi-finished products, by-products. And this year, the Kalinkovichi meat processing plant exported stewed meat to China.

- We made the first delivery in the spring, the second is on the way. We export canned beef containing almost 100% meat,” said Alexander Luzhkov, deputy director for commercial issues at the meat processing plant .

I remember that in the 90s, the Celestial Empire supported the Belarusian consumer market with the Great Wall pork stew. Now it's our turn. As they say, debt is worth paying.

- Belarus and China have good economic and political relations. Additionally, more than 20 enterprises - exporters of drinks, frozen berries , and chocolate products - have been accredited for export to China . Negotiations are underway on the accreditation of other enterprises and types of products, says Ksenia Meleshko, head of the main department of foreign economic activity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. - And yet we most actively trade products with the Russian Federation. According to statistics, every fourth kilogram of cheese and every seventh liter of milk sold in Russia is produced in Belarus. At the same time, our cheeses occupy the most significant positions . In Russia, we intend to work more intensively with retail chains; we will develop our own distribution network so that it more actively promotes Belarusian food products to retail chains in remote regions, in the Far East .

Promising markets for Belarusian products are also countries in Africa and the Western Hemisphere. The Ministry of Economy believes that so far work in these areas is not as active as it could be.

“We set the goal of increasing export volumes to African countries by 2.5 times next year,” Minister of Economy Alexander Chervyakov shared his plans.

- Of course, there are markets there that are interesting to us, and a financially secure population. We are talking primarily about Zimbabwe, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Nigeria, Niger, Ghana - states whose heads recently visited Belarus. Basically, for now, our processors supply dairy products, poultry meat , and offal to the African continent,” Ksenia Meleshko clarifies.

In the near future, Belgospischeprom, together with logistics companies, intends to form container trains. They will go to Africa through Russian ports.

- Our enterprises have already sold oatmeal, cigarettes,Alcohol , malt and Sugar . The latter this year is 4 thousand tons,” said Igor Grutso, head of the department for coordinating the supply of goods to the domestic market and foreign trade activities of the Belgospischeprom concern.

Food exports are also being sent to the Western Hemisphere.

- The first 100 tons of dry dairy products were shipped to Cuba for further processing. We plan to increase export volumes. The next stage is the development of a project for the sale of food products in consumer packaging,” said Ksenia Meleshko.

Belarusian sweets with ice cream are also sent across the ocean. And these days our producers of chocolate, marshmallows and marmalade are preparing gift sets for the USA , which are selling with a bang there. They are especially popular on Brighton Beach, in New York, where families of immigrants from the USSR and emigrants of a later time settled.

Belarus is one of the top three world exporters of butter. We are fourth on the planet in cheese and cottage cheese, fifth in skim milk powder.

Tamara MARKINA,

photo - BELTA and from open Internet sources,

newspaper "7 days".