Belarus must aim for $9 billion in agricultural exports in 2024, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting to discuss rural development and efficiency of the agricultural sector, BelTA has learned.

"This year we should aim to increase the output by 6-7% and to export $9 billion worth of agricultural products. A difficult task? Yes, it is. But we must meet these challenges. I call on managers of all levels. You should always strive for more than you have already achieved," the head of state said. As the president noted during the meeting, Belarus is among the world’s top five exporters of dairy products and top 20 exporters of meat products, and these are the agricultural staples. Domestic food is supplied to more than 107 countries. The country earned almost $7.5 billion in 2023. "This is despite a sharp drop in world prices," Aleksandr Lukashenko said. Today, according to him, the task is to move on, to make the work of the agricultural industry more sustainable, and its development progressive. "Today, the task is to move on, to make the work of the agricultural industry more sustainable, and its development – more progressive. We have every opportunity to achieve this. You see the catastrophic food situation in the world. It is clear that the situation will only get worse as the population and the problems that affect the population in a particular region of the world are growing. Let me repeat once again: we need to forget about the sanctions and other Western scare stories. Indeed the sanctions are in place. But we must build our work disregarding them. We need to focus on expanding the production and exporting high value-added goods, developing the national brands ahead of competitors, carving our new product and geographical niches. There is no other way" Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.