BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/06/2009

Belarus to suspend dehydrated milk exports to Russia

MOSCOW, June 17 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian and Belarusian agriculture ministries reached an accord under which Belarus suspends exports of dehydrated milk to the Russian market from June 15 to September 30, Russian Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said on Wednesday.

"The milk problem, in the aspect of sanitary-legal registration, has not been settled yet," Skrynnik said.

"In the 'big milk' period (season of increased milk production), there emerges confidence that the milk, produced by Russian farmers, will be processed and needed on the market at fairer prices," the press service of the Agriculture Ministry quoted her as saying.

"In the fourth quarter of this year, Belarus will resume the supplies of milk powder to Russia, but its volume is not to exceed 15,000 tons until the end of this year, which is considerably less than the volume of imports in the first quarter," the Russian minister underlined.

She noted two elements of the "milk problem" with Belarus.

The first concerns the conformity of Belarusian dairy products to the requirements of the Russian law on technical regulations on milk and dairy products.

"The issue has not been fully settled yet," Skrynnik said.

In order to resolve it, it is necessary that Russia and Belarus make their regulatory enactments uniform.

"We adhere to the same position with respect to other countries, in the first place the Customs Union member," she went on to say.

The second aspect of the milk problem" is related to the excessive exports of dehydrated milk to Russia from Belarus.

"To rectify the situation, we corrected the balance of demand and supply of the Union State for milk and dairy products for 2009, adjusting it downward. At the same time, Russia will increase the imports of Belarusian cheese, butter and cottage cheese.

The agriculture ministries of Russia and Belarus work "in the regime of constructive dialogue, and on a systemic basis," Skrynnik said.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14059375&PageNum=0

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