Myasnikovich: Science should anticipate economy’s needs

The major task facing the Belarusian science today is not just to develop import-substituting products, but also to anticipate the needs of the economy, Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich told reporters as he visited the Institute for Meat and Dairy Industry of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB), BelTA has learnt.

The priority areas of operation of the institute include biotechnologies and development of innovative import-substituting products. “This allows addressing the needs of the food production industry and contributes to the food security of the state,” the Premier said. He drew attention to the fact that new types of products constantly emerge on the market. “In these circumstances we should focus not only on import substitution, but also on leading-edge technology, i.e. we should anticipate the needs,” the Belarusian head of government underlined.

Mikhail Myasnikovich got familiarized with the work of the Institute for Meat and Dairy Industry. The Premier was informed about the course of implementation of an innovative project “Technical upgrade of experimental production of the Institute for Meat and Dairy Industry”, third start-up complex – the establishment of science-intensive biotechnological production”. The major objective of the project is to start manufacturing frozen bacterial concentrates for the dairy industry with the capacity of 40 tonnes per year and dry bacterial concentrates for biological preserving agents (2.5 tonnes per year).

The project is designed to run in 2011-2014. The institute noted that the project will allow reducing the institute’s dependence on foreign suppliers and will also allow meeting about 60% of the domestic demand. At present Belarusian milk processing companies import up to 95% of bacterial concentrates.

The institute has developed basic technologies to produce deep-frozen concentrates (for cottage cheese, sour cream, sour-milk drinks, cheeses with a low temperature of secondary heating) and technologies to make dry bacterial concentrates for preserving agents. Three types of dry biological preserving agents have been tested.

The Institute of Meat and Dairy Industry noted that the project has unique design and technological solutions, construction and installation works. “It is virtually Belarus’ first company of this kind. It is the CIS most advanced company in terms of technical solutions. The equipment for the production lines was purchased from the world’s leading manufacturers and can be used for many types of operations,” the institute informed.