OREANDA-NEWS. The Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation intend to strengthen cooperation in dairy industry through more active application of the exchange mechanism in dairy trade. This agreement was reached on April 24, 2014 at the head office of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) during the talks between BUCE administration and members of the delegations of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Russian Union of Dairy Companies and the National Union of Dairy Producers.

BUCE presented its capabilities of organizing and holding exchange auctions for dairy products and voiced key areas of cooperation in this area. In particular, thanks to a transparent pricing mechanism implemented at BUCE many of the problems related to the formation of the Belarusian-Russian trade balance will be resolved and the so called “milk wars” will become a thing of the past.

The growth of dairy exports via BUCE will also be stimulated by Decree No. 191 “On the use of the exchange trade mechanism when exporting raw materials and finished products” recently adopted by the Belarusian Government. The document provides for wider application of exchange technologies when exporting certain kinds of agricultural products, including dairy. With this in mind, Andrei Danilenko, Chairman of the National Union of Dairy Producers, and Lyudmila Manitskaya, Executive Director of the Russian Union of Dairy Companies, promised to assist with accreditation of Russian dairy producing and processing companies at BUCE.

In his turn, Andrei Volkov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, noted that exchange trade will provide plain and clear rules of the game for Russian and Belarusian economic agents creating favorable conditions for exponential growth of trade between our countries.

The sides also discussed the advantages of BUCE's logistics services that are bound to be popular among Russian consumers that will be able to collect purchased goods at a convenient location. This prompts BUCE to expand the available network of exchange warehouses and recruit additional exchange carriers.

Based on the results of the talks, cooperation agreements were signed between BUCE and Russian Union of Dairy Companies and between BUCE and the National Union of Dairy Producers.

It is expected that implementation of these agreements will help establish a solid foundation for creation of single dairy market within the Eurasian Economic Union.