Some 3.2 million deals worth a total of $21 billion were closed via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) over 15 years, BelTA has learned.
The commodity exchange opened for business on 2 June 2005. During that trading session the Belarusian company UP Bellesexport and the Polish company International Paper Kwidzyn S.A. closed the first deal to sell pulp wood worth $189,000. Since then the commodity exchange has facilitated 3.2 million deals worth a total of $21 billion, with the export volume at $5.8 billion. The most popular commodities traded on the home market include round timber, products made of ferrous metals, extraction cakes of oil-bearing crops while sawn timber and dairy products dominate foreign trade deals.
At present some 24,000 companies, including about 4,700 non-resident ones from 63 countries, are accredited with the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange. All the transactions are processed in digital form. Trade is subdivided into five commodity sections: metal products, timber products, agricultural products, industrial and consumer goods, and promising exchange goods.
Analysts calculate that thanks to the market-based pricing mechanism and the high concentration of supply and demand at the commodity exchange Belarusian commercial entities have received additional earnings and have saved over $1.3 billion.
