15 October, Tolochin /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Modernisation and the implementation of advanced technologies will offset the negative consequences of Russia's accession to the WTO for Belarusian agricultural producers. This viewpoint was expressed in a conversation with a BELTA correspondent by the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Leonid Zayats. In the Tolochin district, he held a meeting with the heads of districts of the Vitebsk region on the results of the livestock industry's performance in the region for January-September 2012. "In the WTO conditions, Belarusian producers will be able to compete only by increasing the volume of agricultural products, reducing costs, and increasing production efficiency. This can be achieved through the modernisation of production facilities and the adoption by all agricultural enterprises of modern technologies adapted in leading farms in Belarus," the minister emphasised. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food recalled the ongoing work in the country to reconstruct 1.2 thousand dairy farms. These will be modern complexes with new equipment that will help elevate livestock farming to a different qualitative level – industrial production, he stated. Based on the results of work for January-September, enterprises of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food exported products worth 18% more than in the corresponding period of 2011, with a positive balance of foreign trade turnover. Leonid Zayats is confident that the projected export figures for agricultural products in 2012, set at $5 billion, will be met. -0-

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