BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
17/06/2009
Belarus, Russia partially resolve "milk problem"
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.
On Tuesday evening, media outlets disseminated Skrynnik's statement about the successful completion of talks over the "milk problem," in the course of which an agreement was reached that suited both parties.
Initially, the statement was regarded as a confirmation of the settlement of the entire "milk conflict."
Meanwhile, on Monday, Skrynnik said Minsk had proposed, on its own free will, to stop exports of dehydrated milk to Russia during two quarters.
She said it would give an opportunity to Russian producers to sell their products in the peak of the season which posts the highest milk yields.
She also assured that prices of dairy products in Russia by no means would increase because of restricted supplies from Belarus.
"We produce up to 70 percent of dairy products; and it's in our plans to boost this volume," the minister said.
Belarusian dairy products had a 15-percent niche on the Russian market, so suspension of supplies is not critical for Russia, Skrynnik said.
On Tuesday, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Federal Service for Supervision of Consumers Protection and Welfare Gennady Onishchenko said his agency had suspended talks with Belarus until the authority of the Belarusian delegation was specified.
The talks began on Monday. The Belarusian delegation that included producers, planned to determine the list of dairy products to be exported to Russia.
After June 8, more than 1,000 dairy products from Belarus were banned in Russia, due to non-conformity to the norms of the new Russian regulations, which draws a clear line between natural milk and products using dehydrated milk or vegetable raw materials.
Onishchenko said he had repeatedly warned Belarus that the documents on dairy products had to conform to the new regulations, which became effective in Russia a year ago.
But 90 percent of Belarusian dairy products do not conform to these norms, while companies have not re-drawn their permits for supplies under new rules.
Smolensk region governor Sergei Antufyev expressed satisfaction with the Russian-Belarusian accord on Minsk's suspending milk powder exports in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
"This decision is an effective measure to support Russian farmers, who will be able to sell their products at acceptable prices in the "big milk" period," Antufyev said, underlining that the quality of Russian milk is no worse than Belarus'.
Executive director of Russia's Union of Milk Producers Vladimir Labinov was more reserved in his evaluation of the Russian-Belarusian accords.
He fears that Belarusian milk powder might flood Russia in the fourth quarter at low prices.
Labinov called for fixing quotas on Belarusian milk.
He does not expect price hikes until August.
"Dairy farms' milk production is decreasing as the demand is falling, there's excessive supply on the market, so there are no reasons for price hikes," Labinov said.
"One might claim even now that in the autumn, prices of dairy products will be lower than last year's" he said.
The Federation Council's Speaker Sergei Mironov is confident that Moscow and Minsk would settle their "milk problems" shortly.
"It seems 'the milk problems' will be resolved through the efforts of the agriculture ministries," Mironov told reporters on Wednesday.
He called for reserved attitude in evaluations, expressions and emotions when discussing the problem.
Source:
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14059962&PageNum=0
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