Albert Sufiyarov: Belarusian products account for about 30% of the total capacity of the cheese market in the Russian Federation

— I am not sure that the new package of cooperation agreements between Russia and Belarus can significantly affect the volume of supplies of Belarusian cheeses to our market. The fact is that there were no restrictions on the import of Belarusian dairy products in Russia before. And if until 2013 Belarus supplied us with about 70 thousand tons of cheese per year, by 2020 these volumes have increased several times, up to 280 thousand tons of products per year, the expert noted.

According to Albert Sufiyarov, Belarusian products account for about 30% of the total capacity of the cheese market in the Russian Federation:

— We can say that the main beneficiaries of the food embargo in Russia are Belarusian producers. They were much better prepared than our industry companies to increase their cheese production capacity.

— It is difficult to say definitely whether there are prerequisites for Belarus to increase the supply of cheese to Russia. In principle, measures to support the dairy industry, including cheesemakers, are still quite well developed in the neighboring country (much better than in our country). Most likely, the situation on the market will remain approximately the same as it is now, and we can expect that the conditions for importing Belarusian products to the Russian Federation will definitely not worsen, added the founder of Neva Milk.

In general, Albert Sufiyarov summed up, we can expect that the cheese market will be in surplus in the near future. However, the surplus will not be too large, as manufacturers adjust their plans depending on market conditions.