Belarus is set to increase the annual milk production to 9.2 million tonnes by 2025, Belarus' Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister Igor Brylo said at the 6th export forum dedicated to the Belarusian dairy industry on 14 October, BelTA has learned.
“Belarus' dairy industry has been expanding for the last 10 years. We have done a tremendous job. Last year we produced over 7 million tonnes of milk, which was almost 1.5 million tonnes more as compared with 2010. This year, the positive trend remains in place. In January-September we produced 300,000 tonnes more year-on-year. We are set to to reach 7.5 million tonnes by the end of the year. The dairy industry development strategy until 2025 envisages the target of 9.2 million tonnes of milk. This means we need to add more than 2 million tonnes in the next five years," Igor Brylo noted.
He stressed that it is only thanks to modernization that milk production increases and its quality improves. Over the past 10 years, Belarus has upgraded more than 1,600 farms that account for more than 65% of dairy cattle. "This means that almost 1 million cows are kept at farms with the use of brand new technologies," the deputy minister added.
Belarusian specialists have been continuously working to improve the quality of milk. the milk of extra grade accounted for about 10% of the total output in 2010, and 60% in 2019. The profitability of production was about 10% in 2010 and about 30% at the end of last year.
The modernization of the dairy industry will continue. "Now we are working on a program for the next five years. We are drawing up plans for every region. We are setting quite ambitious tasks," Igor Brylo said.
