OREANDA-NEWS. September 05, 2011. Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich held a meeting on procurement, storage and processing of sugar beet harvest at Gorodeya Sugar Refinery. During the meeting the Head of Government was reported on the status of agricultural organizations in the harvesting and processing of sugar beets. It was also discussed the matter of ensuring sugar beet transportation by rail and road, keeping the crop and its efficient processing.

While visiting Gorodeya Sugar Refinery Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich stressed the need to increase the efficiency of the sugar industry. According to the head of government, a lot of problems have accumulated in the industry. “In previous years we have missed much in terms of development of capacity of sugar mills. As a result, the volume of production and capacities are not balanced,” the Prime Minister said. “Farmers have to start harvesting sugar beets early, at the beginning of September, when the sugar content of the crops is not yet high. “Despite all the effort we undertook in 2011, despite the heavy investments (more than Br130 billion) the capacity of sugar mills has not increased much,” he said. Today the capacity is about 30,000 tonnes of beets per day. However, this is not enough.

In 2011, the beet-growing area of sugar beet in the republic is 99.5 thousand hectares, 2.7 hectares more than in 2010. Gross harvest is expected in the amount not less than 4200 tons. At the expense of public procurement is planned to purchase 3650 tons of sugar beet harvest in 2011. Total current year production of sugar from sugar beet will be 501 thousand tons, or about 119 percent to the level of 2010.

The Prime Minister believes that this year all conditions are in place to increase the sugar content of sugar beet to 16.5-17% or more. The weather was good this year, and technology for the cultivation of crops was fully observed. The government keeps all of these issues under tight control.

Mikhail Myasnikovich noted that the major issue today is to harvest and provide transportation of sugar beet to the sugar refineries. For this up to 420 train cars are needed. The Belarusian Railways, however, cannot provide such an amount. According to the Premier, the Belarusian railway company is in need of almost 5,000 cars for transportation.

Mikhail Myasnikovich added that domestic sugar producers would have to work hard to expand their sales network. At present Russia is the main destination of the Belarusian sugar. Russian agrarians, however, are expecting a rich harvest of sugar beet this year and are planning to increase its production. This is believed to sharpen the competition and worsen the economic efficiency of Belarus’ supplies to the Russian market. Therefore it is high time the country expanded its export geography.

The primary objective is to raise the efficiency of the industry. “As long as the economy of the industry is bad, there will be losses. On the one hand, they are justified as a lot is spent on development. But it would be better to work out solutions to problems connected with the economic security of the industry. We should not expect that money will come from somewhere,” Mikhail Myasnikovich noted.

The Prime Minister also instructed companies to expand the range of products and ramp up production. “To sell sugar in big bags is not smart. We need to develop confectionaries. It is necessary to sell less sugar and more packaged sugar and related goods, namely apple sauce, fruit jam, etc.,” Mikhail Myasnikovich stressed. Handling these issues will help solve many problems in the confectionery industry. To date one third of confectionery in Belarus is imported. It is inadmissible with the current output of sugar in the country. “We have our own flour, sugar, technologies. We should manufacture all these products by ourselves,” Mikhail Myasnikovich concluded.

Answering the question of journalists on prospects of the currency market stabilization, the Prime Minister of Belarus has noticed that all strategic decisions relating to the currency market were announced yesterday by the President. “All major decisions have been adopted, the matrix worked out. We need to work out the mechanisms to implement all those decisions which have been formulated by the President,” said Mikhail Myasnikovich.

As was instructed, in mid-September the Currency and Stock Exchange will hold an additional session to determine the market exchange rate of Belarusian ruble. "In this case we cancel schemes that were in operation until now, when the foreign currency was actually distributed by hand," said the Prime Minister. The exchange rate will totally depend on the demand/supply ratio,” Mikhail Myasnikovich said.

Special attention was attached to social security issues. “We, together with Anatoly Tozik and the Labor and Social Security Minister, detailed every issue regarding state employees, students and pensioners,” Mikhail Myasnikovich stressed. In his words, the country has real sources to support these categories of the population, the Premier added.

In opinion of the Prime Minister, the single exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble might be established in one or two months. “We will approximate the official exchange rate with the rate established by the additional session of the foreign exchange,” Mikhail Myasnikovich said. He urged Belarusian companies to manage their foreign currency reserves carefully. “They have USD 2.8 billion on deposits. Besides, households have another USD 3.5 billion on deposits,” the Prime Minister said.

According to Mikhail Myasnikovich, households have a substantial amount of foreign currency on hand. “We are convinced that people will start reconverting it providing an adequate exchange rate is established. Our people are smart; they will take advantage of a higher profitability of currency conversion. I believe people will start selling more foreign currency,” the Prime Minister said. He emphasized that even today households sell a sufficient amount of foreign currency - USD 150-210 million per month. “Almost the same amount is purchased, except for a small sum used by banks to pay off foreign credits,” the Head of Government explained.