Belarusian farmers interested in Japanese experience of creating agricultural crops

Belarusian farmers are interested in the experience of Japanese scientists in creating new varieties of agricultural crops. Contacts in this sphere were established as the Belarusian delegation took part in the agricultural technologies expo Agro Innovation Japan 2014 in Tokyo, BelTA learned from Yuri Pchelko, Deputy Director General for Foreign Economic Activities of the Vitebsk branch of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Vitebsk branch of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry scheduled the business visit to Japan for 10-16 November for the sake of attending the major international expo that featured seeds and agricultural products, equipment, information systems and software, fertilizers and agricultural chemistry, environmentally friendly technologies. Representatives of Belarusian farming enterprises were interested in buying vegetable seeds since Japan boasts cutting-edge experience in this field. The Belarusian farmers were also interested in the experience of using organic fertilizers, state-of-the-art products in agribusiness automation, and in the market of preowned construction and agricultural machines.

The Belarusian farmers established contacts with Japanese companies during the expo as well as via the representative of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan and via the Embassy of Belarus in Japan where a separate meeting took place. “The embassy and our representative will continue helping build up ties between the businesses of the two countries, including in agriculture where contacts are few and far between,” explained Yuri Pchelko. Belarus and Japan have established tighter cooperation with regard to culture, children recreation, the provision of medical equipment and radiation safety instruments to Belarusian institutions. Apart from that, a delegation of business circles of Minsk and the oblast visited Tokyo early this year. During the visit the possibility of supplying woodworking industry products, agricultural products, and agricultural chemistry products to Japan was discussed.

The Deputy Director General for Foreign Economic Activities of the Vitebsk branch of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry added that the Chamber is meant to get businesses meet each other and facilitate the dialogue. After that companies prefer working without mediators. This year the Vitebsk branch has arranged over 60 events to advance foreign economic ties.