Prime minister highlights development of Belarusian dairy industry

Speaking about the situation in the processing industry, Roman Golovchenko recalled a saying: we survived hunger, we will survive prosperity. “In other words, now we truly need to survive opulence because our manufacturing capabilities have increased by quite a lot. By the way, it is one of Belarus' accomplishments secured over the previous years. Today we saw it firsthand. By the way, the head of a dairy enterprise [OAO Savushkin Product Director General Aleksandr Savchits] said that in 1998 the enterprise processed 70 tonnes of milk per day. At present it processes 2,400-2,500 tonnes per day. Can you imagine the leap that happened virtually in the last 20 years? The output has increased by 30 times,” the prime minister pointed out.

Roman Golovchenko remarked that there are certain problems. An increase in stock in storage is one of them. But in his words, it is not the most important thing right now. “Our earnings from sales of dairy products stand at Br12 billion. Export of dairy products is close to $3 billion. In order not to lose but increase these earnings, we need to understand what is happening on neighboring markets, what the situation is from the point of view of marketing policy, and we need to understand the overall development strategy,” the prime minister stressed.

Roman Golovchenko remarked that for a long time Belarusian producers had enjoyed rather mild conditions, which had allowed them to operate on the Russian market with high profit margins. However, the situation is changing, competition is getting stronger. “With good reason the head of state urged the producers to reach out to markets of other countries and diversify their sales. We understand now how important it is. Certainly, the Russian market is the most acceptable one for us. We are accustomed to working on it and we will always work on it. But competition is getting tougher. We cannot expect that we will always rule supreme on the Russian market,” he said. Roman Golovchenko added that Belarusians are ready to compete with other producers.

In particular, Belarusian enterprises have virtually monopolized sales of butter and cheese in big packages in Russia. “But other producers come to the market. Russia's domestic industry develops. Russia's milk output is rising. What do we do? We penetrate other markets. We start making new products and opt for deeper processing. Instant milk formulas, lactoferrin products, milk protein whey, and so on. One can say these are high-tech dairy products. I think it will be possible to explore these niches for a long time. We will definitely find use for and will sell all the milk that we will make in the country,” Roman Golovchenko concluded.