29 September 2021
Output of Belarusian peat industry expected to rise by 15-20% over five years
GOMEL, 29 September (BelTA) – The output of the Belarusian peat industry is expected to increase over the course of five years. Belarusian Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich mentioned it while on a tour of the peat extracting enterprise Zhitkovichi TBZ, BelTA has learned.
The official underlined the peat industry has a lot of promise. Shipments of peat products are expected to increase by 2-3% every year, resulting in a 15-20% increase over the course of five years.
The output of fuel products and non-fuel products is on the rise. About 70% of the non-fuel products are exported, with the current output close to 120,000 tonnes. There are plans to increase the output of non-fuel products.
A policy aimed at increasing the output of fuel products has been embraced. Fuel products are primarily sold to boiler houses of utilities enterprises, which are switching from natural gas to peat. About 70,000 tonnes of peat fuel is sold to utilities enterprises at present. “We intend to increase the figure by 1.5 times over the course of five years. The consumers also include cement plants and other enterprises. We are about to finish a project, which will allow doubling the shipments of such products as early as next year,” Viktor Karankevich explained.
The energy minister stressed that it is important to penetrate new target markets to sell competitive products of the Belarusian peat industry without raising consumer prices.
Viktor Karankevich also mentioned that Zhitkovichi TBZ is a solid enterprise that has been extracting milled peat for 50 years and can achieve more within the next five-year term. “The enterprise operates in the black. The manufacturing process is well-polished. Salaries are on the rise. It is a good foundation for an increase in output, profits, and profit margins. I think we will see it within the next few years,” he concluded.