BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/06/2009

Belarus to halt powdered milk exports to Russia until October

The FINANCIAL -- According to RIA Novosti, Belarus has agreed that it will stop deliveries of powdered milk to Russia until October, Russia's agriculture minister said on June 17.

"To resolve this situation we together with the Belarusian side have adjusted the balance of supply and demand of the Union State for milk and milk products in 2009 by reducing the supplies of powdered milk from Belarus to Russia," Yelena Skrynnik said.

The minister said earlier on Wednesday that the sides had signed a "mutually acceptable agreement" under which Russian producers of powdered milk will buy milk from Russian farmers.

The measure is aimed at preventing the dumping of powdered milk on the Russian market and will allow Russian producers to sell milk at "fair prices" during the "high season," Skrynnik said.

She added that Belarus would resume supplies in the fourth quarter, but the total figure would not be higher than 15,000 tons before the end of the year.

Earlier in June, Russia banned imports of more than 1,000 types of dairy products from Belarus, saying producers in the ex-Soviet republic had failed to comply with new Russian standards introduced last year.

Belarus qualified the measure as "economic discrimination" and boycotted a post-Soviet security summit in MOSCOW . In a tit-for-tat move it also toughened customs controls on its land border with Russia from June 17.

The Belarusian State Control Committee also said 20% of Russian beer in the former Soviet republic was imported using shadow schemes and proposed establishing new controls.

Skrynnik said on June 17 that the issue of regulations "has not yet been settled."

The Belarusian agriculture and health ministers, Semyon Shapiro and Vasiliy Zharko, were due in MOSCOW later on Wednesday to discuss the dispute with the Russian minister.

Source:

http://finchannel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40391&Itemid=56

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