Belarus PM expects greenhouse vegetables availability problem to be resolved within several years

MINSK, 7 March (BelTA) – The problem of greenhouse vegetables availability in winter will be resolved within the next few years, BelTA learned from Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko after a conference held to discuss greenhouse farming at OAO DorORS.

Roman Golovchenko said: “The production of vegetables of the so-called borscht variety [potatoes, onions, carrots, beet root] is way in excess of the domestic demand. All the so-called autumn vegetables are stored in stabilization funds, storage facilities of organizations, and so on. There are problems with protected ground products in certain periods of time such as cucumbers, tomatoes, culinary plants, and flavoring herbs.”

In his words, the total output of these crops also exceeds the domestic demand, but the domestic output of vegetables is insufficient in winter or in the autumn-winter period. “For instance, we satisfy about 40% of the demand for cucumbers. There are no problems with supplies because we can import them from friendly countries but their price is higher. This is why it is necessary to balance the production of greenhouse vegetables in Belarus in order to prevent supply shortages in the winter period. It is not difficult to accomplish as far as the technology is concerned. Our production of cucumbers and tomatoes with supplementary lighting is underwhelming. OAO DorORS already uses fourth-generation and fifth-generation greenhouses with supplementary lighting. We used this example to evaluate how much investment we will need to channel into the development of such greenhouses. I think this problem will be resolved within several years,” Roman Golovchenko remarked.