Subbotin: Belarusian food exports amounted to $4.2 billion since the beginning of the year

October 3, Minsk. Since the beginning of the year, Belarusian food exports have amounted to $4.2 billion, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Subbotin said on the air of the TV channel, BelTA informs.

"While last year we were a little short of $6 billion, this year we want to significantly step over this milestone. At the moment, in three quarters we have already made $4.2 billion in food exports and are going with a surplus significantly exceeding $1 billion," noted Alexander Subbotin.

According to him, last week, almost every day, the headquarters for field work met in the Council of Ministers. "This is primarily due to climatic conditions. In early September, we were ahead of schedule, but then several weeks of continuous rains, and everything stopped. We even began to lag behind last year, and it took effort to catch up with this level. where it was possible, around the clock. By October 5, we plan to complete the main sowing, that is, it will be somewhere around 90-95% of the total. And in the whole country, we must complete work by October 8," the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the lack of sugar on the shelves in some regions of the country. "This excitement is artificially caused. This year we have sown more sugar beet than last year. Now only 20% of the crop has been harvested and the factories have just started working. We need a maximum of 360 thousand tons of sugar per year for the domestic market, and we are closing this issue , introducing sugar beet into the state order: we planted and harvested 3 million tons of raw materials for 360 thousand tons of sugar as a state order, and everything else is already the profit of our enterprises. "300 thousand tons of sugar," Alexander Subbotin continued. "This is all our export potential. A significant part of the sugar has already been contracted. We produce about 4.7 thousand tons of sugar per day. Sugar consumption in the country is at its peak, when people make jam,

Alexander Subbotin stressed that many countries are interested in Belarusian sugar. Among them are Russia , Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan. "Last year we managed to get into the state reserve of China. Our Chinese colleagues, seeing that we are carefully fulfilling our obligations and the quality of our sugar, this year increased the order volume to 30,000 tons," he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister also commented on the availability of buckwheat for the Belarusian consumer. “This year we have sown a little more buckwheat in order to fully provide for ourselves. Despite the lower yield, we have already harvested almost half - 16 thousand tons. For domestic needs, we need somewhere around 27-30 thousand tons of buckwheat. This is seeds and cereals together. I think that we will be fully provided with our own buckwheat. And I emphasize here that buckwheat is not an export product for us, so we sow it only for ourselves, - Alexander Subbotin emphasized. - However, we are at the forefront, we probably put the dairy industry as the highest-margin product.This year, we gained 63 kg per animal and, on average, about 1-2% more than last year, and last year was very good in terms of milk,