Ambassador revealed Belarusian exporters’ reserves in Russian market
The protection of the market and promotion of the goods that still face some problems are the number one topic for the President of Belarus in the context of Belarusian-Russian relations – as stated by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia, Dmitry Krutoi, following his today’ meeting with Aleksandr Lukashenko
The diplomat informed that, of the $23bn of Belarusian exports to Russia, $6bn account for food, and the remaining $17bn – for industrial goods, “The latter are often associated with the flagships of our Industry Ministry, and other types of economic activity are sometimes omitted. The President is absolutely right in saying that there are great opportunities for our light industry now. True, it has seriously improved its standing in Russia, but the difficulties are related not only to the competition against domestic or Eastern brands, but also to building a sales strategy. Take the concept that our light industry has chosen: showrooms of Belarusian goods, where various products – including linen, clothes and shoes – are offered for sale in one place. There are very few of them in Russia, while the demand is enormous. Russians evaluate the quality of Belarusian goods not only by food, but also by our light industry products and cosmetics. Our colleagues lacked the skills of healthy PR and marketing in the Russian market, so we will actively promote it from now on.”
Mr. Krutoi called woodworking – which products are also not very widely represented in Russia – the second direction for boosting sales, “Indeed, there are our popular brands – such as Pinskdrev or Molodechnomebel, but in general, if we are talking about a wider range of products (boards, paper, sanitary products), there is no clear concept of promoting woodworking products in the Russian market, from the President's point of view.”
The same applies to chemical products: fibres, paints, varnishes, and so on. As stated by the diplomat, this niche has also been freed by Western companies, so Belarus needs to step up here.
