Today, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting on the development of the village and increasing the efficiency of the agricultural sector.
The current event, the Head of State noted, is a logical continuation of the practice of objective and systemic analysis of the state of affairs in specific sectors of the economy. This time, the agenda includes issues of developing the agricultural sector, increasing the efficiency of its work and increasing its contribution to the total national income.
“The well-being of our people, foreign exchange earnings, the level of food security and, ultimately, the socio-political stability in the country largely depend on the state of affairs in the countryside. People must first of all be fed, clothed – in a word, live normally. Then there will be socio-economic stability. Agriculture contributes to this in many ways,” Alexander Lukashenko emphasized. “In general, farmers have something to be proud of. Belarus fully provides itself with basic types of food. It significantly surpasses other CIS countries in the production of such products and consumption per capita.”
Thus, the supply of milk is almost 270%, meat – 135%, sugar – more than 150%, potatoes – 112%. In a number of positions, Belarus looks worthy in the world ranking. The country is among the top five countries – exporters of dairy products and the top 20 leading exporters of meat products, and these are the main agricultural products.
Domestic food is supplied to more than 107 countries of the world, foreign exchange earnings from its sale in 2023 amounted to almost $ 7.5 billion. “And this is with a sharp drop in world prices,” the President noted.
“Today, the task is to move forward, to make the work of the agricultural sector more sustainable, and its development – progressive. We have all the opportunities to achieve this,” the Head of State is convinced. “We know how to do it. You see what a catastrophic situation with food is developing in the world. It is clear that the situation will only worsen due to population growth and the problems that affect the population in one or another region of the planet. I will repeat once again: we must forget about sanctions and other Western horror stories. Of course, they exist. But they must be forgotten. You know why. We must firmly expand the production and export of products with high added value. Develop national brands, ahead of competitors. Conquer new product and geographic segments. There is no other way.”
