MINSK, 8 May (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko spoke about the situation with potato availability in stores as he attended the opening ceremony of the Minsk International Exhibition Center on 8 May, BelTA has learned.
The president noted that people want to buy domestic products at low prices, while farmers are interested in selling their goods at higher prices. "So that they can make money, buy fertilizers, and plant crops faster," he said.
It turned out that potato prices in Russia are several times higher than in Belarus, so producers focused on the Russian market.
"The government told me: ‘Aleksandr Grigorievich, don't worry, we have tens of thousands of tonnes of seed potatoes and we will sell them'. I reminded them that I am a historian. During the Great Patriotic War, people were dying of hunger in Leningrad, but they preserved the seeds so that they could make bread later. Do you think that a potato shortage in Russia and other countries will be overcome in a short time? No. It will last for several years. We have seed potatoes. Let's endure for another month (I know some don't like potato quality in our stores), then we plant seed potatoes and will harvest ten times more than we planted. Then we will be able to sell them at a good price. This is a smart plan from a farmer’s perspective," the head of state remarked.
“Some may worry about the quality of potatoes. We need to be patient for a month. But we will not be left without potatoes,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
He stated that the State Control Committee has been tasked with studying the situation across all retail chains to determine which products are in short supply.
"Then I will call the governors and ask: Guys, I warned you in the autumn about the need to create stabilization stocks. We needed to set aside reserves to ensure the food supply. And what does this include? Potatoes, first and foremost. Apples and other products. Where are they? Of course, farmers need to earn money. If they don’t sell potatoes for export and don’t receive foreign currency, we will have to support them from the budget. I would rather not. Because we need to support teachers, doctors, and retirees. This is also a lesson for us. I believe this will be the last lesson for the government. We need to improve our storage facilities and make stock of the world's best potatoes so that our people never face such a situation again," the president pointed out.
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