A. Lukashenko will get acquainted with the prospects for the development of Belarus' flax industry

September 21, Dubrovno District / Vladimir Matveev - BELTA /. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will get acquainted with the current state and development prospects of the country's flax industry during his working trip to the Vitebsk region today. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the press service of the Belarusian head of state. In particular, the head of state will visit OJSC "Dubrovno Flax Mill". The President will be informed about the socio-economic development of the region, the implementation of his instructions on the development of the flax industry, as well as the production and economic situation and development prospects of OJSC. The head of state will get acquainted with the modern machinery complex for cultivation and processing of flax, and the technological processes of processing flax straw. Alexander Lukashenko will also be presented with an exhibition of agricultural machinery produced by enterprises of the Vitebsk region. Currently, 158 flax-sowing organizations are engaged in flax cultivation in Belarus, 36 flax mills, 5 branches, 6 sections and 2 workshops, 5 export-sorting bases and 16 flax-seed stations are in operation. For 8 months of the current year, flax mills of the republic produced 23 thousand tons of flax fiber, including 4.6 thousand tons of long and 18.4 thousand tons of short flax fiber. The share of long flax fiber in the total volume was 20.1%. As noted in the press service, in recent years, the country has been consolidating agricultural organizations cultivating flax. It is planned that by 2015, about 100 such organizations will be in operation. The average yield should increase from the current 8 centners/hectare to 10.7 centners/hectare. High performance is planned to be achieved, including through the acquisition of modern equipment for agricultural organizations cultivating flax. The cost of such equipment, which the government plans to purchase in 2011-2015, is about Br430 billion. In addition, it is planned to complete the re-equipment of flax mills in 2013. -0-