Belarus Leading In Peaches And Pineapples’ Supplies To Russia
- 11.12.2015, 9:20
The foreign economic meltdown has not touched upon all business activities. And we have something to be proud about in this sphere.
However, the official authorities of Belarus are hushing up these indisputable achievements for some reason, instead of blowing the trumpets all over the world, Belgazeta writes.
According to the Russia’s Federal Customs Service (FTS), over the year of food embargo Belarus ahs become an absolute leader in supplies of a number of both traditions and exotic fruits. In particular, today Belarus is having a strong lead in deliveries of kiwi, peaches, cherry, sweet cherry, apples and pears to Russia. And notably, as stressed by the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Belarus has confidently upstaged Turkey as far as peaches, cherry and sweet cherry are concerned. Turkey takes the second place in the list of these products’ exporters.
And this gap is impressing. While over 9 months of this year Turkey has imported to Russia 26,000 tonnes of peaches amounting to $33.3 mln, Belarus – 120,000 tonnes amounting to $21.4 mln, that is, it has not only sidestepped the rival in the volume of deliveries in 4.6 times, but has beaten the price competition. The average price of 1 kg of Belarusian peaches was $0.18, while a kilogramme of a Turkish product was $1.28.
By the way, by a strange coincidence, consumers in Belarus have not experienced this price grace themselves, as even in the height of the season they had to pay at least 1 Euro per a kiloramme of plum-size peaches and nectarines, though the “Belarusian” gifts of nature seemed to have a giveaway price. Well, in reality peaches were from Moldova or Macedonia, and then they went directly to Russia, as re-exported goods. So no hard feeling. One thing is strange however: Aliaksandr Lukashenka, who hates middlemen and profiteers, keeps silent, as if he does not notice what is happening. Maybe he had been diverted by the elections campaign?
Meanwhile, the situation with deliveries of exotic fruits was the same. Unfortunately, Belarus was second in pineapples supplies, it has sold 553 tn amounting to $111,000, and it came in second after a faraway overseas country Costa Rica. We have also yielded the palm to Brazil, being second in exporting guava and mango, though Brazilian fruits had a far higher price: $1.71 against $0.25. We have probably overlooked something, when the blue-eyed country turned into a fairyland Chunga-Changa, where people have a wonderful life, as they have summer all the year!
The achievements of the Agriculture Ministry of Belarus in other fruits and nuts are not so impressive. Thus, Belarus is fourth in lemons. As far as tangerines are concerned, though our country has beaten Abkhazia, it is just eighth in the team event, though the Belarusian citrus fruits had no peers in their cheapness. Then again, our coconuts are not expensive either. However, some work is yet to be done with this kind of fruit, as the fifth position in the list of exporters is not the limit of our ambitions. We could not be also satisfied by the seventh position in banana category.
However, Rosselkhoznadzor is again the path of further product line diversification of the Belarusian exports and development of goods turnover inside the Eurasian economic union.
Though in 2014 the share of mutual turnover of the Eurasian economic union’s countries has shrunk to 11.7% in the total volume of external trade turnover, since December 7 this Russian agency imposes a special phytosanitary regime on plant products imported from Belarus.
The reason for this decision was increased volume of Belarusian re-exported supplies “with false phytosanitary certificates.” The head of Rosselkhoznadzor believes that contraband Polish and Ukrainian goods get into Russia through Belarus. And now banned Turkish goods covered by falsified documents started to flow as well. “Everything that raises doubts, would not be allowed to enter the territory of Russia,” – the spokesperson of Rosselkhoznadzor Yuliya Melano said. Attention should be paid primarily to a number of products which are not usual for the declared country of origin.
And it means that supplies of coconuts, pineapples, mangoes, avocadoes, figs, dates and other fruits and vegetables, which are received by Russia from Belarus now, are under a significant threat. The same threat exists for the entire trade turnover of goods in the EEU countries, as it has been given a strong impulse to shrink further. Since January 1, 2016 Ukrainian food products could be also banned from being imported to Russia (in addition to Turkish goods), in case the economic part of the EU-Ukraine Association agreement comes into force since the beginning of the next year.
However, there is a timid hope that once again Moscow is to believe promises of Minsk, which is to guarantee near-border phytosanitary and veterinary control without participation of Russian representatives. “We have agreed on closer cooperation in this issue,” – said a representative of the Agriculture Ministry of Belarus Aliaksei Bahdanau. “Fabricated phytosanitary certificates are not made in Belarus, they are made in the country from which goods travel, and after receiving the database of Rosselkhoznadzor, we would be able to detect such violations more effectively,” – he assured firmly. We have a lot of trouble believing that…
Russians will continue eating Belarusian bananas, but there will be less of them, and their prices are to become higher, as requirements to the quality of certificates (and consequently, prices for them) are sure to go up.