On July 15, Minsk / Tatyana Lobas - BELTA /. In January-May of the current year, Belarus increased its food product exports by 46.1% compared to the same period last year, reaching $1198 million. Imports grew by 4.3% to $644.9 million, the National Statistical Committee informed BELTA correspondent. The increase in food exports resulted from a rise in the value of supplies of white sugar (by $85.5 million), condensed and dry milk (by $77.9 million), beef (by $37.2 million), cheese and curd ($48.9 million), butter ($36.2 million), and fresh milk and cream (by $23.6 million). Average export prices for milk and dairy products in January-May increased by 36.3% compared to the same period last year, reaching $2.4 thousand per tonne, and for meat and meat products - by 5.7% to $3.1 thousand per tonne. The share of food products in Belarus's total export volume for January-May was 13% compared to 11.3% in January-May 2009. Within the export volume of consumer goods, this share was 59.6% compared to 57.2%. Dairy and meat products remained the main export items of Belarusian food. Thus, in January-May, the export of milk and dairy products in physical terms amounted to 242.9 thousand tonnes, which is 10.6% more than in the same period last year. For meat and meat products, this figure was 82 thousand tonnes (an increase of 20.4%). Notably, 230.5 thousand tonnes of milk and dairy products and 81.7 thousand tonnes of meat and meat products were exported to Russia, which is 20% and 20.1% more, respectively, than in the first five months of last year. Regarding imports, a reduction was observed in the main commodity items. For instance, imports of grain crops decreased by 64.1% to 54.3 thousand tonnes, supplies of frozen fish decreased by 3.7% to 45.8 thousand tonnes, and animal feed products decreased by 26.3% to 20.3 thousand tonnes. At the same time, imports of vegetable oil increased by 0.5% to 43.4 thousand tonnes. According to statistics, the share of food products in the country's total import volume for January-May of the current year was 5.4% (in January-May 2009 - 5.9%). Within the import volume of consumer goods, this share was 31.7% (36.4%).

BELTA