Belarusians Have Reduced Purchases of “Native” Goods to a Minimum in Eight Years

In the eyes of the consumer, imported goods will win the competition.

Belarusian consumers are less and less satisfied with made in Belarus products. The share of imports in retail sales reached a multi-year high. Statistical bodies reported on retail sales of trade organizations for 6 months of 2021. In terms of money, the retail turnover of the companies reached 23.3 billion BYN, banki24.by writes.

At the same time, the share of food products was 52.6%, and the share of all others, except for food products, was 47.4%. In money terms, sales of foodstuffs amounted to about BYN 12.2 billion, non-food products - BYN 11 billion. Such a significant proportion of foodstuffs in the turnover indicates the low living standards of the bulk of the population.

In Western and Central Europe, the share of food in sales is noticeably lower. As a rule, the higher the salaries in the country, the fewer food products are in retail sales. The turnover of domestically produced goods for 6 months amounted to BYN 13.8 billion. In particular, sales of Belarusian food products exceeded BYN 9.3 billion, non-food products - BYN 4.4 billion.

The share of Belarusian goods in sales amounted to 59.2%, and this is the lowest value in 8 years. Compare: in the first half of 2020, this share was 60.6%, in 2019 - 61.7%, in 2018 - 63.2%, in 2017 - 65.3%, in 2016 - 66%, 2015 - 69.5%, 2014 - 70.4% and 2013 - 71.5%.

The constant drop in the share of domestic goods in trade turnover is clearly noticeable. This means that Belarusians are less and less inclined to choose “native” goods on the shelf when there is an alternative.

In terms of food and non-food products, the trends are similar - the share of domestic products is falling, and the share of imports is growing. In the eyes of consumers, imported goods will compete with Belarusian goods by the price-quality ratio.

At the same time, it is characteristic that the share of food products decreases more slowly than the share of non-food products. If the share of Belarusian food products for 2013-2021 fell from 82.8% to 76.4%, then for other goods, it decreased from 55.9% to 40.1%.

In this case, the logical explanation looks like this. Many food products are perishable, and there is no point in importing them to Belarus in increasing quantities. This applies primarily to goods of the bakery and meat and dairy groups.

The situation with other goods is not so positive for domestic producers. For example, over 6 months, the share of goods from Belarus in sales of fresh fruit and nuts was only 8.5%, cars - 11.2%, fish - 12.8%, washing machines - 13.6%, TVs - 14.3%, vegetable oil - 15.8%.