Russian governor: share of Belarusian agricultural machinery growing in Leningrad Region
The share of Belarusian agricultural machinery purchased by Russia’s Leningrad Region is growing – as stated by Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko during his today’s meeting with President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko
Addressing the Belarusian leader, he said, “Every meeting we have with you gives a new impetus and new development plans. Moreover, we are consistently implementing everything you talk about at these meetings: step by step.”
Alexander Drozdenko noted that by late 2023, the parties had almost reached $1bn in mutual trade. The trade turnover totalled almost $935m.
“Meanwhile, in the first five months of 2024, we have an increase of over 23 percent. It is clear that this figure [$1bn] will be definitely surpassed, because we really see how the pace is increasing,” the Russian governor noted.
According to Alexander Drozdenko, the Leningrad Region and Belarus are constantly expanding the range of co-operation, which also applies to liaisons in agriculture.
“We’re one of the first Russian regions to subsidise the purchase of Belarusian equipment from its budget,” the Russian governor said. “We subsidise 35 percent of tractors’ cost and 40 percent of harvesters’ cost. It it is connected with open-ground vegetables and potatoes the subsidy reaches 50 percent. The conditions are absolutely the same for both Russian and Belarusian suppliers. This is absolutely true, and we can see it by changing the structure of the purchase of equipment. In 2023, Belarusian equipment accounted for 21 percent of total purchases, while in the five months of this year the figure is already 33 percent.”
