Quality matters. How the dairy industry is developing in Belarus

The dairy industry in Belarus is famous for its quality. it specializes in the production of MILK, butter, cheeses, ice cream, canned milk and other products. Over the past years, our republic has been one of the five leading countries exporting dairy products in the world. Experts told BELTA about how the dairy industry is developing today, how the safety and quality of products are ensured, and about the new products that enterprises plan to introduce.

High efficiency indicators

The dairy industry is the driving force of the agro-industrial complex of Belarus. “The range of products in the dairy industry includes more than 2 thousand types of whole milk products alone, we produce about 40 types of butter, as well as about 480 types of cheese,” said Yulia Guzkova, deputy HEAD of the MEAT and dairy industry department of the main processing industry department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. - This year there has been an increase in the production of dairy products. For butter there is an increase of about 20%, for the cheese group - about 3%, for the production of whole milk products - more than 11%. There is also an increase in the production volumes of dry dairy products - these are skim milk powder , whole milk powder milk, whey powder." In 2023,


Belarus supplied dairy products to 59 countries. “I’ll give a few figures to confirm the quality of our dairy products. If we take all the milk that is produced in the country as 100%, then 60% in the form of dairy products is exported . If we take cheeses , then one and a half to two months of work of our industry is enough, "To provide the domestic market, the rest of the time is work for the foreign market. If we take butter , then about 75% is exported. In general, the dairy industry occupies the largest share in the EXPORT of agricultural products - about 40%," said the head of the chief Department of Processing Industry of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Vadim Pobedinsky.


According to him, the dairy industry in our country is highly developed. Belarusian milk processing organizations are equipped with high-tech equipment that allows them to increase labor productivity, improve working conditions, increase production volumes, and reduce energy consumption. “This is a constant process, work at enterprises goes on every day: this includes advanced training, technical re-equipment, technologies, and our own know-how, the development of new types of products. Very close work is carried out in cooperation with the National Academy of Sciences, in particular with the Institute of Meat - the dairy industry,” noted the head of the main department of the processing industry.
Safety and quality

Belarus is one of the world's top exporters of dairy products, so much attention is paid to this area. “On the part of the State Control Committee, in order to protect state interests, measures are being taken to prevent threats in the field of processing agricultural products. This includes the production of raw materials directly, improving their quality, loading production enterprises, eliminating criminal schemes in the production and sale of products,” said the head of the department for control over work of enterprises processing agricultural products, KGC Oleg Knyazev.

“The KGC carries out systematic work. For example, in 2020, the committee, together with financial investigation authorities, identified large-scale criminal schemes in which unscrupulous intermediaries bought large volumes of products from processing plants and exported them outside the republic. They were bought at prices for the domestic market - naturally lower than export ones. As a result, revenue and profits ended up in the pockets of unscrupulous intermediaries. Moreover, they created competition directly to manufacturers and dumped prices," he noted.

At the proposal of the committee, the Council of Ministers adopted Resolution No. 379, which sets maximum minimum prices for certain types of dairy products exported abroad. “These are butter, hard cheeses, dry dairy products . These prices are mandatory for all exporters and administrative liability is also provided for non-compliance,” added Oleg Knyazev.

Also, at the request of the State Control Committee, order has been established with the issuance of veterinary documents necessary for the export of dairy products. Thus, the Department of Veterinary and Food Supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food has prohibited the issuance of export veterinary documents for dairy products to intermediaries (enterprises that are not processors) since June 2022. In addition, in order to prevent the export of dairy raw materials outside the republic, the department has terminated veterinary certification for export shipments of pasteurized milk and cream in bulk. As a result, exports of milk and cream carried out by state-owned processing enterprises in consumer packaging increased by 11%.
According to a representative of KGC, the measures taken have succeeded in completely eliminating unscrupulous intermediaries from the export of dairy products, which is currently carried out exclusively by their producers at prices set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Commercial structures that were engaged in the purchase and resale of raw materials and finished products at prices for the domestic market were cut off from the dairy market. “Due to the measures taken, the efficiency of state-owned enterprises has been increased. In 2023, the production of the entire main range of dairy products increased, and the workload of production enterprises throughout the republic increased,” the head of the department emphasized.

“Currently, the committee has proposed a number of measures to the government, including changes to current legislation, which, in our opinion, will help increase product traceability and, in general, increase the responsibility of processors and manufacturers in the production and sale of products. For example, one of the proposals is “This is to ensure registration of all links in the chain of movement of products, including from the processor to the final consumer,” he said. “Another proposal is to make changes to the information system in the field of veterinary medicine - that is, placing in it not only veterinary, but also other shipping documents We propose to introduce liability for failure to enter or enter false data into this database.In particular, to expand the powers of the Department of Veterinary and Food Supervision in terms of granting the right to exclude from the register of processors producers who have committed a gross violation of veterinary legislation. We have proposed such measures, they are being considered, some of them are already at the stage of final implementation. We will continue to work in this direction." Plans

for the future
At the moment, the industry is undergoing technical re-equipment and modernization of enterprises. "The main task of measures for technical re-equipment and modernization of enterprises in the near future is the development of an industrial base for the production of popular dairy products with a higher commodity value, including those obtained using innovative technologies. To achieve these goals, enterprises of the republic have organized the production of instant milk powder, which is an export position among dry milk products. We also purchase technological equipment for packing butter into small-portion packaging from 10 to 15 g,” said Yulia Guzkova, deputy head of the meat and dairy industry department of the main processing industry department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

At the end of this year, there are plans to increase production capacity for blue cheese production. “In the near future, we plan to implement a project for the production of cheeses with white surface mold. Our main task for 2026-2027 is the production of milk protein concentrate, as well as expanding the capacity for the production of whey protein concentrate,” the specialist said.

BELTA.