Crocodiles And Hippos Against Lukashenko

What's stopping the ruler from tapping the African market.

Since relations with neighbors are not getting better, Alexander Lukashenko decided to go far away. In this case - to Africa. However, it has already been visited, and the results of the campaign are not impressive. There is nowhere else to go anyway. But he is not expected in Africa either, writes planbmedia.io.

"The situation on our main markets is difficult now... Enterprises and industries can no longer make excuses that everything is contracted, that someone in Russia offers a better price, and so on. We have to go to the far arc and work there," said Lukashenko at the meeting on Thursday.

It's impossible to say that we haven't tried to go to the far arc before. Especially after the Ukrainian market and, for the most part, the European market were completely closed for Belarus. And Africa's vast riches have long kept Lukashenko awake at night.

"It is the world's next storehouse of raw materials - a third of the world's mineral reserves, including 8 percent of all natural gas, 12 percent of oil, 40 percent of gold, 90 percent of chrome and platinum. This turns Africa into a locomotive, with which we can move forward," he said on Thursday.

It is certainly a shame when someone develops these natural riches and you are not called to participate. Therefore, the Belarusian authorities have made a lot of efforts to develop African markets.

And if you look at it with the naked eye, it may seem that the efforts have not been wasted. For eight months Belarus exported $530 million worth of goods to Africa. And it certainly looks impressive. If only these 530 million dollars are not compared with anything.

Because if we compare it with the entire Belarusian export, the share of Africa in it amounted to only 2 percent. And if we compare it with, say, Leningrad Region alone, it turns out that all Belarusian exports to all African countries were half as much.

It is true that compared to 2019, Belarusian exports to Africa increased by 120 million dollars. But here, again, there is a nuance. Four hundred million dollars of Belarusian exports to Africa are exports of oil products, fertilizers and weapons. That is, Africa will not compensate Belarus for losses in the Russian market.

And the export of less specific goods is more complicated. It amounted to only $130 million for eight months to all African countries. Moreover, a significant share of these exports resulted from a single deal - supplies of Belarusian machinery to Zimbabwe. For two years, the Belarusian authorities have been trying to make a similar deal with Kenya, but somehow it doesn't work out.

If before 2020 Belarus traded in Africa with successful countries like Egypt and Morocco, now it has to break into the markets of Sudan, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe. But even there the Belarusian authorities are trying to pull off their favorite deal: resources in exchange for kisses. They want to receive diamonds, oil and precious metals in exchange for a condescending pat on the shoulder of their younger African brothers.

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