In Russia, they are unhappy that Belarusians are flooding them with cheap butter
Russian and Belarusian agricultural authorities held negotiations dedicated to butter prices and supplies. The reason for the discussion was the difficult situation in the Russian market: the cost of butter production in Russia increased, demand decreased by almost 10% over the year, and warehouse stocks significantly increased. Against this backdrop, pressure from Belarusian producers intensified, whose share in sales in Russia has already reached about a quarter of the market and may continue to grow, writes "Kommersant".
According to the publication's sources in the agricultural market, Belarusian companies began offering butter at lower prices, which complicates the sale of Russian producers' own products.
Officially, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture noted that the meeting discussed plans to increase dairy production and develop exports to third countries.
The decline in demand for butter became one of the food trends in Russia in 2025. Retail sales fell significantly more than the entire dairy segment as a whole, which was a consumer reaction to prolonged price growth.
The main reason for the increase in butter prices in Russia at the end of 2024 — beginning of 2025 was a sharp increase in production costs: feed, energy resources, and logistics became more expensive. Additionally, high global prices and a decrease in the profitability of related products influenced the situation.
By the end of 2025, price growth slowed down, but demand is recovering slowly. Russian producers have accumulated significant volumes of butter in warehouses, but cannot significantly lower prices due to low profitability and the high price of raw milk.
Against this backdrop, Belarusian brands are strengthening their positions: one of them — "Brest-Litovsk" — became a sales leader in the category, and Belarusian companies are also actively producing products under the private labels of Russian retail chains.
Experts note that this indicates a redistribution of market shares in favor of Belarusian enterprises, whose production cost may be lower due to the peculiarities of the economic model.
On May 22, 2025, while making personnel appointments, Alexander Lukashenka, among other things, touched upon the topic of diversifying the export of Belarusian food products, acknowledging the problem with selling produced butter.
According to Lukashenka's words at the time, too much butter is now being made in Belarus, so there is a surplus.
«Everything else is bought up, except for butter. But butter is made from milk. So let's, like in Vawkavysk, process it into dry milk. Good price. We'll take it to Africa. We'll make baby food," said Lukashenka.
It is to be assumed that these large warehouse stocks of produced butter in Belarus not least influenced the fact that it entered the Russian market at reduced prices.
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