Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Belarus to quintuple potato exports to Russia
Belarus plans to export about 300,000 tons of potatoes in this season, said Mr. Vladimir Garkun, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of Belarus. According to Fruit-Inform, those planned volumes are 5 times as high as registered in the previous season.
Mr. Garkun said that export prices of Belarusian potatoes averaged RUB 7/kg (USD 0.15/kg). According to Fruit-Inform, Russian farmers now ship potatoes at RUB 12-14/kg (USD 0.26-0.29/kg), an increase of 15% year-on-year.
Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Belarus expect potato exports to grow after December due to a decrease in the domestic supply in the Russian market.
According to Mr. Garkun, Belarusian growers harvested 1.26 mln tons of potatoes this year with potato yields averaging 24.5 tons per hectare. Belarusian total potato production (uncommercial and commercial) exceeded 6 mln tons.
Mr. Garkun also said of Belarusian potato exports totaling 171,000 tons in the first 10 months of 2014 with Russia as the leading destination.
Similar export volumes were reported by the vegetable industry. According to Mr. Garkun, this year's vegetable production at 340,000 tons will enable Belarus both to cover the internal demand and have volumes for export.