ALEXEY BOGDANOV, Chief Main Department of Foreign Economic Activity, Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Republic of Belarus: Belarus has never worked against anyone

Bogdanov-180This week the Republic of Belarus reduced the minimum recommended export prices for dairy products. The decision was made at the meeting headed by the Minister of Agriculture Leonid Zayets. Alexey Bogdanov, Chief of the Main Department of Foreign Economic Activity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus, commented on the situation on the III Export Forum “Dairy Belarus” (Milknews).

“Firstly, these are not indicatives, it is about the level of the minimum recommended export prices determined on the basis of the market analysis accepted by the group created by the order of the Prime Minister. This group includes all the leaders from 6 oblasts, from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and from the Commodity Exchange.

Decisions on the minimum recommended price level are made based on general market analysis and the available offer. There is no directive regulation, you may comply with it or not, if not – please sell for more if you want.

The fact that someone says that Belarus will fight with New Zealand is not like that. In general, all this is regulated by the market: if the inventories grow, no one buys, and our customers say it is expensive, and we really see that the situation on the market is changing, of course, we will recommend reducing the price. If, for example, the price on the market starts to increase, and the demand grows, and there are no inventories, of course, we recommend it to be raised. Enterprises do it themselves, they raise the price themselves in case of the market growth. Now this “indicative” is a benchmark, many sell goods for more expensive than indicative, for example, cheeses and milk powder.

I would not say that we are threatening Russian producers, dryers or somebody else. Why did not they say, when the indicators were high: “Thank you, Belarus, you are helping us to make money”? We work in the same market. The price falls everywhere: in the world, Ukrainian milk powder is sold at $1.6, the European powder at 1.8, we sell at 2.2, that is, 125 Russian rubles. We have never worked against anyone: neither against New Zealand, nor against Russian producers. We focus on the market.

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