Lukashenko set task of making agricultural sector work more sustainable, and its development progressive
The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has convened a meeting today focusing on rural development and improving the agricultural sector efficiency. The conversation has become a logical continuation of the practice of objective and systematic analysis of the state of affairs in specific sectors of the economy. The format of the event was the same as a week ago, when the meeting participants discussed the situation in the industry and prospects for its development. The Head of State then instructed to organise a similar wide discussion on the agro-industrial complex.
The President said in the beginning of the meeting that the latter’s agenda included issues of developing the agricultural sector, improving its efficiency and increasing its contribution to the overall national income, “The welfare of our people, foreign exchange earnings, the level of food security and, ultimately, socio-political stability in the country largely depend on the situation in rural areas. People should, primarily, have food and clothing – live normally, in short. There will be socio-economic stability then. In general, farmers have something to be proud of. Belarus fully provides itself with basic types of food, also significantly surpassing other CIS countries in the production of such products and consumption per capita. Sufficiency in milk stands at almost 270 percent, meat – 135 percent, sugar – 154 percent, and potatoes – 112 percent.”
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, Belarus occupies a worthy place in a number of positions in the world ranking. “The country is among the top five exporters of dairy products and the top twenty leading exporters of meat products. Domestic food is supplied to more than 107 countries of the world, and foreign exchange earnings generated by such exports amounted to almost $7.5bn last year. That was registered against a sharp drop in world prices. Our present task is to develop further, make the work of the agricultural sector more sustainable, and its development – more progressive. We have all the possibilities to achieve this. You can see what a catastrophic food situation is developing in the world, and the situation will continue worsening due to the population growth and the problems that affect people in a particular region,” he said.
The Head of State once again emphasised that nobody should refer to any sanctions and other horror stories of the West, “It is necessary to expand the production and export of products with high added value, to develop national brands and be ahead of competitors, to conquer new product and geographical segments. We have no other way. Therefore, our today’s talk will focus not so much on successes, but on the existing problematic issues, the solution of which will allow us to achieve significantly higher indicators.”
