The main component of the agribusiness sector is the farming industry. It employs 458 thousand people, or 10.6% of the total number of the employed in the national economy. Despite the fact that the farming industry accounts for less than 8% of the gross domestic product of the country, it is of great significance in social terms. The food security of Belarus is fully provided. Only critical products which cannot be produced in the country due to natural and climatic conditions are imported. Belarus is the leader among the CIS countries in terms of food production per capita, while the grain production exceeds 700 kg per each Belarusian citizen, that exceeds the level of many developed countries.

Improving the soil fertility, providing farms with high-quality seed grain, improving equipment, increasing cattle and poultry productivity, etc. are the focus of attention of the extensive governmental support.

The actions taken allowed the targets of the gross agricultural produces output to be met which were provided for by the Program of Social and Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus for 2001-2005. The growth rate was estimated to be 125.7% in 2005 compared to that of 2000.

In 2005, the grain production at net weight, after processing, was estimated to be 6.4 mln tons, sugar beet – 3.1 mln tons, potato – 8.2 mln tons, rape seed – 150 ths tons, flax fiber – 50 ths tons and vegetables - 2 mln tons.

In 2005, the land improvement actions covered an area of 23 thousand ha, and melioration systems were refurbished and rehabilitated over an area of 14.7 thousand ha.

The processing industry demonstrated a sustainable output growth in 2001-2005. In 2005, the growth rate of the industrial output of the organizations reporting to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food amounted to 115.1% in comparable prices against 2004, consumer goods – 114.8%, and that of Belgospishcheprom – 108.7% and consumer goods – 108.4%.

The food export is increasing. It almost doubled over the last 2 years and in 2005 amounted to nearly USD 900 million, while the export of meat foods increased 2.2-fold and dairy products – 2.1-fold. Increasing the local output and expanding the range of products reduced the import of grain, flour, cereals and pasta.

The main goal of the perspective agribusiness sector development is to efficiently, competitively and sustainably produce agricultural raw materials and products processed from it to meet the local market demand and increase the export potential. The increase in the gross agricultural produces is targeted to be 6–8% and that of the processing industry – 9-9.5%. To this end, the achievements of the scientific and technical progress need to be extensively implemented in the production, and innovation activity is to be promoted.

Reequipping the agribusiness sector’s subsectors, implementing new highly productive and energy-saving processes in the farming industry and processing industry – this is the main way of improving competitiveness of products both in the domestic and external food markets.