In 2011, Belarus does not plan to export grain

August 24, Minsk / Tatyana Lobas - BELTA /. Belarus does not plan to export grain in 2011. This was announced today to journalists by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Vasily Pavlovsky, BELTA correspondent reports.

"We are primarily interested in meeting our own grain needs - the needs of animal husbandry," the deputy minister emphasized. - We will export grain seeds and potatoes." According to him, when determining the sown areas, the needs for feed grain for the production of compound feeds for the livestock industry were taken into account first of all. "It is more profitable for us to direct grain to compound feeds and export meat and dairy products," said Vasily Pavlovsky. - We are not a country that should trade grain; we should earn currency by selling finished products with higher added value."

Belarus will trade in grain seeds. For example, today on the foreign market, including in the Russian regions, winter seeds - wheat, triticale, and rapeseed - are in demand. The Scientific and Practical Center for Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Grodno Agrarian University, which produces winter wheat seeds on its experimental fields, and the collective farm "Gigant" of the Mogilev region, which has winter rapeseed and potato seeds, have permission for seed export. According to Vasily Pavlovsky, it is currently more profitable to trade in hybrid grain and rapeseed seeds, and this task has been set for Belarusian breeders.

Belarusian farms are interested in exporting rapeseed seeds, as well as seed and table potatoes. This year, it is planned to maintain last year's volume of potato exports. In 2010, 250 thousand tons were sold abroad.

Regarding grain imports, approximately 6-10 thousand tons may be purchased this year. This is mainly for higher-grade wheat for baking. Last year, 6 thousand tons of such wheat were purchased. According to the Deputy Minister, "if raw material purchases for the feed industry are required, they will also be made." However, as analysis shows, the harvested grain crop ensures 100% provision of feed from domestic production, he added. Currently, no import purchases from the new harvest are planned, although a number of poultry farms, which require additional purchases of wheat and other components for feed production, are acquiring the necessary raw materials.-0-