BUCE notes an increase in demand for raw milk from Belarusian processors

November 5, MINSK. The Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange notes an increase in demand for raw MILK from Belarusian processors. This was reported to BelTA by the press service of the BUCE.

Since the beginning of the year, 98.4 thousand tons of raw cow's milk worth Br105.2 million have been sold at the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange. amounted to 116%. As explained in the press service of the exchange, the increase in the amount of transactions is due to increased demand from dairy enterprises - primarily exporters who are ready to fight for each lot to meet the demand for high-quality raw milk.

"This year, dairy industry enterprises have significantly increased supplies abroad, and today our country accounts for about 6% of the world trade in dairy products. Naturally, with an increase in production volumes and sales of finished products, the demand for raw milk has also increased. About 20 dairy producers are actively working on the stock exchange, putting up their free resource for auction. For processors, this is a good opportunity to buy the missing volumes of raw milk, but since demand, as a rule, exceeds supply, exchange prices turn out to be noticeably higher than over-the-counter ones. For example, under direct contracts a liter of "Extra" milk costs an average of about 85 kopecks, while at exchange auctions, in the course of competition between buyers, the price reaches Br1.20. Of course, dairy farms primarily benefit from this, receiving an additional 15-20% of additional revenue. At the same time, it is more profitable for processing enterprises to overpay for raw materials, and then compensate for these costs by exporting high value-added products. That is, both the seller and the buyer get exactly what they need.

Exchange trading in raw cow's milk for the domestic market has been held at BUCE since April 2019. About 7 producers and 15 processors regularly participate in weekly trading sessions. "At the same time, in order to increase the supply of raw milk, the possibility of attracting foreign suppliers to the auction is being studied. In particular, farms from a number of regions of the Russian Federation bordering Belarus have already expressed their interest in selling raw milk through the exchange platform," the exchange added.