OREANDA-NEWS. September 6, 2012. Russian and Belarusian sugar producers plan to establish a joint venture to export sugar to third countries, the Belarusian government said in a statement on Thursday citing CEO of state food producer Belgospischeprom Ivan Danchenko.

“There is a question on creating a joint export company with the Russians to sell surplus sugar outside of the Customs Union in a coordinated way so that the sugar business is profitable,” Danchenko said.

The total sugar surplus of the two countries amounts to 300,000 tonnes. Experts quoted in the statement said that the sugar could be sold to Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, and some European countries.

“We expect that the gross harvest will allow us to produce 600,000 tonnes of beet sugar. This is 1.5 times more than Belarus needs, so we will have good export potential,” Danchenko said.