BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/10/2007

Belarus to introduce quotas, licensing for meat exports

MINSK, October 17 (Itar-Tass) - Belarus intends to introduce the assignment of quotas and licensing for exports of meat and dairy products, a source close to the Belarussian government told the Prime-Tass economic news agency on Wednesday.

It said the Council of Ministers had "prepared a draft resolution, regulating exports of pork, beef and poultry meat, as well as whole-milk products, butter and cheese. To export these products, the exporter will have to get a license from the country's Trade Ministry," the source said.

He said the draft resolution also envisages the introduction of export quotas for meat and dairy products. "The amount of export quotas for these products in 2007-2008 will be coordinated with the president, while the Ministry for Agricultural Production will be distributing quotas among exporters," the source added.

Earlier, the Belarussian Trade Ministry initiated restrictions on exports of butter and cheese to meet in full the demands of the domestic market. This measure is necessitated by the fact that in neighbouring on Belarus countries, first of all in Russia, dairy products prices are higher than in Belarus.

That is why it is more advantageous for producers to export their products.

According to the Belarussian Statistics Ministry, in January-August 2007 the production of whole-milk products in Belarus increased 10.5 percent as compared with the same period last year to 911,900 tons, while cheese production grew 12.3 percent to 74,600 tons.

The production of butter declined by 3.6 percent to 61,000 tons.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11977110&PageNum=0