BUCE intends to promote Belarusian timber exports to Germany

Prospects of boosting export sales of Belarusian sawn timber and other forestry goods to Germany by leveraging the exchange trade mechanism were discussed at the annual session of Belarus-Germany working group on trade and investments held on February 26 in Leipzig under the auspices of the Belarusian embassy in Germany and the Belarusian chamber of commerce and industry.

The participants of the session acknowledged the need to ramp up efforts in a bid to attract more German companies to the electronic marketplace of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) and thus ensure maximum competition during exchange trades. At present, 92 German economic agents are registered on BUCE. In 2019, they executed exchange transactions to the tune of 60 mln BYN putting Germany second after Lithuania in terms of the volume of timber products purchased via BUCE. At the same time, both Belarusian and German experts believe that the range of products available to German buyers on BUCE must be expanded. In particular, there are plans to use BUCE as a channel for shipping Belarus-made fuel pellets, briquettes and woodchips to Germany as part of the German Government’s program designed to replace traditional energy sources with renewables. This is a timely measure bearing in mind the upcoming launch of 6 new pellet plants in Belarus. Once they are up and running, they will be able to sell their products directly to German consumers via BUCE marketplace.

In this regard, BUCE voiced its intention to help Belarusian exporters find potential buyers for their produce in Germany and other EU members. BUCE’s brokers operating in Germany will also provide assistance in this matter.