Belarus and Russia ensure food security of the Union State on a parity basis

Natalya Karpovich Head of the Food Security Department of the State Enterprise "Institute of System Research in Agro-Industrial Complex of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus", Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor

The functioning of the Union State is based on the objective process of bringing together the economies of both countries on the basis of common spiritual and cultural values, historical traditions, social preferences, territorial location and other factors that create conditions for the formation of political and economic relations corresponding to the status of the union. In this process, an important role belongs to the agro-industrial complex as a basic sector of the economy that determines the well-being of peoples, the development of which both in Belarus and in Russia requires solving similar problems.

Increasing the sustainability and efficiency of development of agro-industrial complexes of the member countries of the Union State should be based primarily on deepening integration processes in the agricultural sector, developing markets for goods and services in the industry on the basis of mutually beneficial trade and, ultimately, on taking advantage of the economic integration of the agricultural market. This, in turn, requires coordination of national agricultural policies and the formation of a unified strategy based on further step-by-step synchronization of its most important directions.

I would like to note that food security is one of the main areas of ensuring the national security of countries in the long term, a factor in preserving statehood and sovereignty, as well as a major component of socio-economic policy. Therefore, taking into account the growing influence of external threats to food security associated with instability of the world market and manifestations of various kinds of crises, initiatives of Belarus and Russia in the field of food security should be based on increasing the production and competitive potential of the constituent entities of the Union State on the basis of cooperation in key industries, the formation of a favorable competitive environment, as well as the creation of common production, market and information infrastructure facilities.

Belarus and Russia already have sufficient potential to solve the food problem on the basis of their own production.

The Institute of System Research in the Agro-Industrial Complex of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus annually monitors the food security of our country. Based on a wide range of indicators, the physical and economic accessibility of food, food quality, and the level of environmental sustainability of agricultural production are assessed. The monitoring results of a number of recent years prove that food security in the Republic of Belarus is fully ensured at the national and regional levels. The integral food security index, which takes into account the sufficiency of domestic production, the level of consumption of basic products in relation to rational consumption and the quality of the population’s diet in the energy assessment, is consistently above one. This means that the food security system operates in a sustainable and balanced manner.

In the country, the level of self-sufficiency in the main groups of food products exceeds 100 percent. For example, we are provided with 263 percent of dairy products, 228 percent of vegetable oil, 154 percent of sugar, 134 percent of meat, 127 percent of eggs, 100 and 102 percent of potatoes and vegetables, respectively, etc.

A high level of self-sufficiency allows us to supply high-quality goods in a wide range to the domestic market, pursue an active foreign trade policy, and increase the positive balance of foreign trade in the group of agri-food products. Significant export potential has been formed - about 40% of manufactured products are sold on the foreign market. Belarus has become not just a guarantor of its own food security, but also a country with export-oriented agricultural production.

On the world market, Belarus has established itself as a reliable supplier of agri-food products. The domestic agro-industrial complex is successfully implementing its export priorities. In recent years, our exports of agricultural and food industry products provide about 20% of foreign exchange earnings from the supply of all goods abroad.

It should also be noted that Belarus and Russia have chosen fundamentally similar strategies to ensure food security and independence.

In this regard, it is absolutely fair that the Russian Federation, as a key partner in the framework of interstate integration, accounts for about 70% of exports and 40% of imports of domestic agricultural and food industry products. Obviously, in our Union State these values ​​reflect the high level of interaction between our markets.

Current trends suggest that in the agro-industrial complex of Belarus and Russia there is a wide range of tasks that can be most effectively solved jointly. To do this, it is necessary to ensure the further formation and development of mechanisms for implementing the common agrarian policy of the Union State.

In general, the integration of agro-industrial complexes and agri-food markets in Belarus and Russia has an optimistic outlook. This is determined both by their complementarity and influence on the domestic markets of our states, and by coordinated policies in the world market.

Products produced in Belarus are complementary in mutual trade with Russia, since our export-oriented goods, as a rule, are in demand on the Russian market (beef , poultry , animal butter , cheeses and cottage cheese, whole and skim milk powder , sugar ) . At the same time, the republic is interested in Russian goods that form the basis of the Russian export basket: fish, sunflower oil, flour and cereal products , etc.

Therefore, we can say with confidence that Russia will continue to be the main trading partner of Belarus in the group of agricultural products and food in the future. Within the framework of the Union State, preferential conditions are created in mutual trade, measures are developed to ensure identical legal frameworks for the implementation of a common agricultural policy, including in the field of state support for agriculture and food security. Special attention is paid to ensuring uniform requirements in the production and circulation of agricultural goods, as well as rules for the application of veterinary and phytosanitary measures. Taken together, these measures are aimed at ensuring coordinated actions in agricultural policy, which primarily involves the development of intraregional trade and achieving balance in domestic food markets.