‘Deputy Prime Minister Should Admit Government Has No Brains’

A Belarusian teacher took issue with the statement of official Shuleiko.

The country's Deputy Prime Minister Yury Shuleika said that in 2024, the country planted less potatoes than last year: previous years have shown that its quantity is excessive. These statements sound especially strange against the backdrop of a potato shortage in Russia. Why don't Belarusian farmers want to make money? The Charter97.org website spoke anonymously with a professor at the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy:

“This is an absolutely Soviet approach and statement. And here's why. If Belarus had created a good base for processing potatoes, the issue would not be raised like this. Why reduce the area if you can plant them with varieties that are well suited for the production of chips, French fries, and some other semi-finished products? You can earn several times more on processed products than on raw material exports.

Not only do we not work in this area, but we also buy several tens of thousands of tons every year. Yes, there are climatic features. In the spring, young potatoes from warm countries sell well, while Belarusian ones have not yet been harvested. But in autumn, this product from Egypt, Kazakhstan, and other countries is also on the shelves.

Maybe we should admit and say that we cannot provide people with our own potatoes cheaply and quickly? We are losing this market.

The Onega enterprise still buys most of the potatoes for its chips abroad. This is a fact. Why can't we replace imported potatoes with our own?

Profitable agriculture has long been targeted, niche. We are chasing large milk yields, tons. Today, there are people willing to pay big money for exclusive meat, some rare cheeses. There is a huge market for halal products. We remain a raw material appendage.

To sum it up, instead of telling stories about how “we don’t need more potatoes,” we could admit that “we don’t have hands or brains and don’t know how to work with them.”

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