Belarus-made innovative product for cancer patients stirs interest abroad

This year, the Kobrin Butter and Cheese Factory was the first in Belarus to start producing an import-substituting product for dietary preventive nutrition of adults, restoring strength and energy. The Nova Vita dry mixture can be used for feeding cancer patients after surgery and for nutritional support of healthy people with heavy physical exertion, in the postpartum period, with nutritional difficulties in old age. Russia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan have already shown interest in the Belarusian innovation.

Ruslan Chibotar, the Director of the Kobrin Butter and Cheese Factory, explained that Nova Vita was developed thanks to an initiative of the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre of Oncology and Medical Radiology, “After surgery, patients need specialised nutrition. It is not always possible to buy an expensive foreign product. We needed our own, Belarus-made, so we began working over it. It took us two years to put our idea into industrial production. Clinical trials were conducted on the basis of the oncological centre for six months, and several hundred patients took part in them. We got very good results, and they surprised even doctors.”

The Belarusian dry mix is twice cheaper than similar imported products. Innovative technology and inexpensive local raw materials are used in its production.

At present, 80 percent of the Kobrin plant’s products are exported, mainly to Russia. In 2022, the company's export revenue amounted to $110m, 87 percent of which was income from the supply of semi-hard cheeses. The export growth rate made almost 140 percent against the 2021 level.