There will be more apple orchards in Belarus

August 23, Tolochin District /Olga Belyavskaya - BELTA/. Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich set the task to increase the number of industrial apple orchards in Belarus. He announced this to journalists today following an off-site meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers in the Tolochin District, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.

Agrarians will have to make every effort to displace imported apples from the domestic market by replacing them with Belarusian apples. These issues cannot be resolved all at once, emphasized Mikhail Myasnikovich. "Although, in principle, according to statistics, we have a balance of apple production and consumption, we import about a third, which is 50-60 thousand tons, today," the Prime Minister stated. "In this regard, we need to reorient in two directions: the number of industrial orchards should increase, and a high level of storage should also be ensured."

According to Mikhail Myasnikovich, the apples obtained in personal subsidiary plots are low-commodity and not suitable for long-term storage. The task is to increase, first of all, the areas for apple orchards in the country's farms. All conditions for this have been created. For example, institutes of the National Academy of Sciences have solved the issue of providing farms with their own planting material. "It is now necessary to work on increasing the areas of industrial orchards and on apple storage issues," he said.

The head of government also noted the need to increase the volumes of industrial apple processing. "Out of the total volume of fruits, about 60% is sold in marketable form, and 40% is for industrial processing, including for large industry," the Prime Minister reported. In his opinion, not all apples should be sent for storage. "We need to ensure deep processing into final products – preserves, jams, and semi-finished products," Mikhail Myasnikovich summarized. -0-