Apples shown to President sold out a few months ago (video)

Alyaksandr Lukashenka discussed fruit preservation technologies during his trip to Mahilyou Province last week. Last year’s apples preserved in “Alexandrian” were shown to the President. They looked very attractive (watch the video).

A Euroradio reporter has tried to buy those apples. However, it has turned out that there were no apples in “Alexandrian”. They were sold out almost half a year ago!

The head of the enterprise orchard, Kanstantsin Baradayenka, says that “some of the apples were preserved for the President’s visit”:
“The apples were sold out after the New Year’s Day. We just kept some for the President’s visit. It’s no use keeping a ton or two. It is better to sell apples quickly and avoid losses. Because the losses keep increasing every month in spring”.

“Alexandrian” explains the absence of Belarusian apples in shops by lagging behind foreign competitors. Moreover, they think that the way out is… private farms!
 

“The thing is that Poles introduced the technology long ago and we are lagging behind a lot. They have better climatic and economic conditions for orchards. We could catch up to them only if we asked private farmers for help. We should at least avoid creating obstacles to their work if we do not render any assistance to them”.


However, the Institute for Fruit Growing of the Academy of Sciences thinks that Belarusian apples can compete with foreign ones. However, we should stick to the technology for it.

According to the deputy director of the enterprise, Anatol Kryvarot, the problem of modern storehouses is being solved now. The country lacks them.

 
“We have storehouses with the capacity of 13.5 thousand tons and we can store products in a regulated gas atmosphere there. More than 50 storehouses were built in the republic in the past 5 years and about 40 are planned to be built within the next five years”.

Looking at Polish and Italian apples in shops, one can see that the storehouses have not been able to help our apples yet. The Academy of Sciences cannot guarantee that there will be Belarusian apples in shops next May. Moreover, they say that it is more profitable… to buy apples abroad!
 

“There are a few problems. Shops do not want to accept our products; it is more profitable to buy large lots abroad”.
 

The Institute for Fruit Growing also admits that it is more profitable to sell all apples quickly rather than keep them the whole year and pay for electricity.

Photo by: belta.by