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Lukashenko talks about unprecedented crop harvest, admits to never eating hamburgers
An archive photo
LOGOISK DISTRICT, 23 September (BelTA) – This year’s crop harvest is unprecedented. Belarus has enough food and actively exports it, too. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement while talking to reporters in the WW2 memorial complex Khatyn on 23 September, BelTA has learned.
Speaking about the fulfillment of instructions concerning agriculture and the organization of the harvesting campaign in the regions, Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked: “There will be no threat [to food security] if [Minsk Oblast Governor] Aleksandr Genrikhovich [Turchin] does what I want them to do.”
The president went on saying: “The crop harvest is unprecedented. We’ve never had one that large. We did a bit of work and we reaped the results.” But the harvesting of some crops is still in progress or is about to end.
Aleksandr Lukashenko was told that the total harvest of cereals including maize and rapeseed will be about 11.2 million tonnes. The head of state warned against too much zeal for the sake of bigger figures and a pretty picture. It may be wiser to harvest maize not for the sake of grain but for the sake of silage in order to provide the animal husbandry industry with additional forage.
As far as food is concerned, Belarus produces all the foods, particularly strategic ones such as salt, sugar, and bread. Aleksandr Lukashenko spoke in favor of eating common food, locally grown foods.
“A cheeseburger or a hamburger… Never ever. Not in my house. The younger son and the older sons haven’t either. They are not accustomed to that,” Aleksandr Lukashenko shared a personal example.
“As for people somewhere in the world starving, we are ready to share. We can earn over $8 billion this year by selling food alone. In other words, we can use our soil to earn money,” he concluded.
The president stressed that it is now necessary to put as much of the grown products into warehouses as possible in order to satisfy the demand of retailers and export demand in between seasons.
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