World meat industry news

 Belarus intends to start supplying poultry to China by next summer, head of the main department for foreign economic affairs of the Agriculture and Food Ministry Aleksei Bogdanov told the media on 8 August.

According to BelTA, Mr Bogdanov said: "We delivered over $2 million worth of dairy products to China in H1 2017, up 72 times from the same period a year prior. Belarus has also been certified for exporting beef to China."

In his words, Belarus is working on the organization of poultry supplies to China.

"There are plans to certify poultry exports. I think we will fulfill this task by next summer and will then launch them," he remarked.

Mr Bogdanov added that Belarus is actively cooperating with the Chinese Drex Food Group Co., Ltd.

"Our strategy to develop export for the next few years includes three main regions. Southeast Asia (China, Viet Nam, and Japan) is the region number one.

"Then there is Middle East (Gulf states), followed by Africa. These three regions are of great interest for us," he underlined.

He clarified that Europe is also viewed as a promising avenue due to the strong currency and high purchasing power, yet trade barriers do not allow large volumes of products enter this market.

Belarus is also actively working on boosting the exports to the CIS member states.

"As for Africa, last year we visited Egypt, Sudan, Mozambique, and South Africa. Belarus has already delivered products to Kenya, Somali, and Guinea.

"As for Muslim countries, we are now certifying halal products. Our exports to Viet Nam are breaking records, we are also selling into Hong Kong.

"We are actively working with Pakistan, too," Mr Bogdanov noted.

He recalled that the Belarusian company Bellakt exports over $1 million worth of baby food to Pakistan a year.

Mr Bogdanov summarised that there are plans to boost the Belarusian agricultural export by 11.5 per cent in 2017.