Belarus supplies more and more finished dairy products to Russia, not raw materials

Russian milk producers perceive the Belarusian "expansion" without enthusiasm.

At the congress of the Russian National Union of Milk Producers "Soyuzmoloko" held in January, the deputy general director of the Belebeevsky dairy plant Timur Gilamiirov complained about the increase in imports of Belarusian dairy products. According to him, Belarusian manufacturers, by cutting the price by half, are pushing the products of Russian manufacturers from store shelves.

“Maybe we should take some action? Perhaps a revision of the trade balance, the establishment of some kind of minimum price?” - the entrepreneur turned to the Minister of Agriculture of Russia Dmitry Patrushev.

To this, Patrushev replied that before ousting foreign products from the Russian market, it is necessary to improve the indicators of self-sufficiency in milk and dairy products.

“We sign road maps, balance sheets with Belarusians, and they supply us with goods so that we don’t have a shortage,” he recalled, stressing that the market in Russia is competitive. According to the official, Belarus has achieved obvious success, and the expansion of the Belarusian "milk" to the Russian market is understandable.

Such a constructive mood of the minister does not remove the actual contradictions between the producers of both countries, and the Rosselkhoznadzor remains a restrictive tool for Belarusian supplies. In addition, at the end of January it became known that the Russian Federation might revise the range of exports of dairy products from Belarus in the direction of reducing some of its types, which, citing the words of the same Patrushev, was reported by the specialized portal rosng.ru. This is due to the fact that Belarus supplies more and more finished dairy products to Russia, rather than raw materials.

Thus, according to Soyuzmolok, in 2020, 265,000 tons of cheese were delivered from Belarus to Russia (+14% compared to 2019), 78,000 tons of butter (+7%), 386,000 tons of milk, cream and dairy products (+16%).

But it must be taken into account that it is from Belarus that most of the products that Russian enterprises do not produce in sufficient quantities come from. We are talking about milk, cream and fermented milk products (with which Belarus supplies Russia in the amount of more than 87%), cheese and cottage cheese (more than 84%), butter (about 60%).

Soyuzmolok experts believe that Russian producers would be more profitable if Belarus supplies milk powder . For Belarusian enterprises, this is a value-added product, and for Russian enterprises, it is raw materials. In this case, Belarus receives the planned profit, giving way to Russian finished products on the market.

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