Business news

MINSK, 14 November (BelTA) - Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast plan to develop cooperation in dairy farming and orcharding. These and other issues were high on the agenda of a meeting between Belarus’ Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats and a delegation from Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, BelTA has learned.

“For the past two years we have made great advances in our joint cooperation projects. We would like to set up an advanced Russian-Belarusian agricultural company in Kaliningrad Oblast. The interest in this is great. We have gained extensive experience in land reclamation and orcharding and we would like to develop cooperation in these areas,” Leonid Zayats said.

Kaliningrad Oblast Minister of Agriculture Natalya Shevtsova noted the need to enhance cooperation in dairy farming. “Kaliningrad Oblast is ready to allocate a site for a dairy full-cycle production complex,” she said.

Natalya Shevtsova expressed interest in cooperation in horticulture. “With regard to fruit trees, we do not have such experience, as you do. In the next four years we will be interested in buying fruit tree seedlings,” the minister informed. It was noted that the Belarusian nurseries are ready to supply about 500,000 pieces of planting material to Kaliningrad Oblast in 2018.

In 2011-2015 Belarus delivered 131,700 apple tree seedlings to Kaliningrad Oblast. In 2016 fruit tree seedlings were supplied by the Vetlov farm from Molodechno District (50,000 pieces), the Novy Sad farm from Pinsk District (16,000), the Vladimir + farm from Pinsk District (2,500 seedlings) and other farms.

In January-September 2017 the trade between the companies affiliated with the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry and Kaliningrad Oblast made up $13.3 million, with export amounting to $12.1 million. Belarus’ export to of poultry the Russian region increased by 3.8% as against the same period a year earlier. Export of meat products rose 2.3 times and that of butter 1.8 times.