Belarus to buy 200,000 tonnes of Polish milk to sell it to Russia

Polish milk will be sent to Russia after processing in Belarus.

The statement was made by Polish minister of agriculture Marek Sawicki. He stressed Belarus promised to import about 200,000 tonnes of milk per month.

Marek Savitski said on the air of Polish TVP1 that the Russian embargo affected Polish farmers hitting 6.2%, of the country's total export, or 1.3 out of 20 billion euro, Gazeta Wyborcza writes.

“Russia is not our main sales market, but it is very important when we speak about certain products, such as cabbage, tomatoes and apples,” the minister said.

According to Marek Sawicki, he visited Belarus on Monday and met with head of the Minsk city executive committee Mikalai Ladutska, the head of the veterinary service and deputy PM Mikhail Rusy. Among other topics, the parties discussed more active participating of Polish manufacturers in the Belarusian market.

“A group of Polish experts and investors goes to Belarus tomorrow. They will talk to concrete Belarusian partners. The Belarusians said they were ready to buy about 200,000 tonnes of our milk per month – raw, condensed or dried – to process it and sell further to the Russian market,” the Polish minister for agriculture said.

The minister underlines Belarus wants to violate neither the import ban nor the inner agreements within the Customs Union with Russia and Kazakhstan. They want to buy products from Poland, process them and sell them to Russia. Marek Sawicki added Belarus was a convenient partner for Poland.

In August, Russia imposed an embargo on the import of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy products from the EU, the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and Norway in response to the sanctions slapped on Russia over its policy towards Ukraine. On August 1, Moscow imposed an embargo on certain fruit and vegetables from Poland.

Photo: krmagazine.ru