President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko visited the Tolochin Cannery – the enterprise with the highest potato yield in the country
The head of state was acquainted with the prospects of potato growing using the example of the Tolochin Cannery, which has been mastering modern technologies for growing, processing, and storing potatoes in recent years. The President was also informed about the progress of the harvesting campaign in the country as a whole, and in the Vitebsk region and the Tolochin district in particular.
Who grows potatoes in Belarus and how much?
The main potato harvest in Belarus is collected from personal plots. About 80% of the total potato planting area is concentrated among the population. It is expected that this year about 5 million tons will be grown here. The remaining 1.1 million tons will be grown in agricultural organizations and farms. By the way, in recent years, the ratio of potato production volumes between them has significantly changed. The share of farms in 2019 was 41% (compared to 15% in 2010). The average yield in agricultural organizations and farms has increased by one and a half times (from 186 to 292 centners per hectare), and gross production has increased by 7% (to 1.1 million tons).
At the same time, potato yields in specialized agricultural organizations are significantly higher than the average indicators for the country. For example, at the Tolochin Cannery, it reaches almost 500 centners per hectare, while the average for Belarus is about 300 centners per hectare.
Currently, potato harvesting is almost complete (11% of the areas remain, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food as of October 13). Agricultural organizations have already harvested almost 600 thousand tons of potatoes. They are sold in retail chains, at fairs, supplied for export, industrial processing, and are laid in stabilization funds and specialized storage facilities.
Depending on the intended use of potatoes, one can choose from 173 varieties included in the state register. There are special varieties, for example, for the production of french fries, crispy potatoes, for salads, for adding to frozen vegetable mixes, for making instant mashed potatoes, and for vacuum storage. The top three most popular domestic varieties include "Breeze" (occupying 16% of the planting structure), "Skarb" (14%), and "Manifest" (10%). By the way, Belarusian selection varieties remain the most popular, occupying 75% of the planting structure.
What does the Tolochin Cannery produce?
The Tolochin Cannery is one of the oldest enterprises in Belarus, built in 1906. Since 2006, it has been part of the Scientific and Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Potato and Fruit and Vegetable Growing.
The enterprise is engaged in the production of potato starch, juice products, and wine (producing one thousand tons, 6 million liters, and about 840 thousand decaliters per year, respectively), growing potatoes, grain, and oil crops, as well as their seeds, conducting industrial horticulture, and operating retail and catering outlets.
The farm land of the enterprise covers more than 8 thousand hectares, including 6.5 thousand hectares of arable land. An intensive industrial fruit and berry orchard has been established on 630 hectares, growing apples, pears, plums, cherries, black and red currants, chokeberries, gooseberries, raspberries, and blueberries.
However, the enterprise places great emphasis on potato cultivation.
In 2015, a full potato storage complex was commissioned here. The installed equipment allows for automated pre-sale preparation: washed, dried, polished, and sorted root crops are packed into nets of various sizes.
Thanks to this, in the first eight months of this year alone, revenue from the sale of table potatoes amounted to Br2.643 million, with a sales profitability of over 19%. A significant portion of the produce is exported to Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg), and since 2019, also to Ukraine.
By the end of the current year, the Tolochin Cannery plans to complete the construction of a quick-freezing workshop. French fries will be produced here from its own raw materials, using the domestic innovative technology of lyeing and thin-layer breading (i.e., wet and dry breading). The line capacity is 3.6 thousand tons per year. The production of such volumes will make it possible to completely replace imports of similar products in trade and expand exports of high value-added products.
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