Arkady Ponomarev: today quotas are the most understandable approach in relations with Belarus
It should be reminded that in November this year, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and Belarus agreed to sign the forecast balances of the Union state for 2019 for milk and dairy products, meat and meat products. As reported by the source of The DairyNews, the balance for milk has been already agreed upon by now.
During the fifth forum of the regions of Belarus and Russia, which was held on October 10-12 in Mogilev, the parties signed balances of mutual food supplies for 2019 for $ 3 billion.
- As far as I know, a framework agreement has been signed. It does not give an understanding of what exactly and how much will be imported from the Republic of Belarus. There is no clear idea about the needs of our own food industries that use raw milk or other dairy products in their production, – commented Ponomarev.
The expert drew attention to the fact that such uncertainty in supplies could generate a new wave of mutual claims. In his opinion, the negative impact of Belarusian supplies on the price of Russian raw milk will remain.
Arkady Ponomarev stressed that in this situation it seems logical to import raw milk or raw materials such as butter and skim milk powder: they are easier to take into account and control. In addition, they can make a wide range of derivative products. Thus, support will be provided to domestic processing enterprises.
To level the factor of seasonality in the domestic market, according to Ponomarev, deliveries should be distributed by months.
- Market mechanisms are agreements on mutual trade on a parity basis. But it is in the project. So far, neither the Russian nor the Belarusian side has an understanding of how to maintain parity, because the countries have different support mechanisms. Therefore, the quotas today is the most understandable approach, – said Arkadiy Ponomarev.
According to the Ministry of agriculture, in January-July 2018 the trade turnover between Russia and Belarus increased by 2.7% to $2.9 billion. At the same time, Russian exports during the reporting period increased by 20.5% to $0.7 billion.
