Ladutska: Situation with Belarusian products is critical

The chairman of the Minsk city executive committee has warned about a possible shutdown of “brand enterprises”.

Mikalai Ladutska said it yesterday at a meeting of the executive committee.

“Taking into account the critical situation of Bellegprom concern's products, we have a proposal to owners of big chain stores to open sections with Belarusian goods. We don't have the right to allow our brand enterprises to shut down. Some of them are on the verge of shutting down. They need a bit of support to stabilise the situation,” he said.

The chairman of the Minsk city executive committee said during a visit to Obuvtorg company that sales of imported footwear were growing, while sales of domestic footwear were declining. “The situation is catastrophic. We the number of domestic manufacturers that we have, imported footwear must comprise 30-35%,” Ladutska noted.

According to him, necessary conditions should be created to sell domestic goods. He proposed to build a shopping centre to sell only Belarusian products. Mikalai Ladutska thinks factories should more actively work with private retail chains and encourage them to sell domestic products.

Obuvtorg company cooperates with 115 sole proprietors and has contracts with 300 wholesale buyers. Sole traders show more interest in cooperating with Obuvtorg as the period permitting them to sell the goods imported into Belarus until 1 July 2014 without documents proving they comply with the technical regulations of the Customs Union comes to an end (March 1, 2015).