Butter Prices Were a Key Topic in Talks Between Shuleyka and Patrushev — Kommersant

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reports that one of the main topics of Belarusian-Russian talks on the agro-industrial sector at the level of deputy prime ministers Yury Shuleyka and Dmitry Patrushev was the situation on the butter market.

According to the publication, Russian producers have faced rising production costs for butter, which has affected prices and led to a decline in sales. At the same time, Belarusian producers have increased their market share, which has reached 23%. As a result, Russian companies are unable to sell off their inventories.

Patrushev’s office and the Belarusian Ministry of Agriculture and Food did not respond promptly to Kommersant’s inquiries. Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture said that plans to further increase dairy production to develop supplies to third countries had been discussed.

Kommersant writes that the rise in butter production costs in Russia is linked to higher costs of milk production. In addition, the situation has been affected by a decline in global prices for skimmed milk powder, which is a by-product.

It should be noted that Belarus’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food significantly lowered minimum export prices for butter in December. In January this year, it also differentiated them by setting separate prices for butter in consumer packaging and without it.

The publication, citing a participant in the dairy market, also reports that the sales leader in the category at the end of last year was the Belarusian brand Brest-Litovsk. Belarusian companies are also actively producing goods under the private labels of Russian retail chains.