Lithuania eyes exporting wheat, eggs to US

 Lithuania is negotiating with the United States to export wheat and eggs, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said on Friday.

He made the remarks when informing about his meeting with visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse, who came to Lithuania to discuss cooperation and food trade.

"We have discussed trade in dairy and meat products as well as export permits for wheat and egg products," Butkevicius was quoted as saying in a statement.

Last November, Lithuania was granted permission to export meat to the United States.

The cabinet head said the United States is a priority market for the Baltic country.

Governmental statistics show Lithuanian agriculture and food exports to the United States stood at 46 million euros (51.79 million U.S. dollars) in 2015. In terms of volumes, agricultural exports to the U.S. increased by 50.2 percent last year and by 62 percent in 2014.

Butkevicius highlighted that exports of the goods of Lithuanian origin to the U.S. is already three times more than exports to Russia, one of the country's main trading partners.

Lithuania, a small Baltic state, has been trying to diversify its agriculture and food export destinations since 2014, when Russia banned food imports from the European Union. 

source : xinhua