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Lukashenko wants export of flax goods doubled over five years
POLOTSK, 8 November (BelTA) – It is necessary to double the export and sales of flax goods over a five-year period. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement as he delivered a speech during the Vitebsk Oblast harvest festival Dazhynki 2024 in Polotsk on 8 November, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Belarusian specialists have learned how to make good, thin fabrics and other goods that are in demand on world markets. We have essentially achieved a zero-waste operating cycle. However, there are still plenty of reserves. It is clear that flax fabrics will be in demand. We need to at least get close to previous, Soviet volumes and double export and sales over a five-year period. All the more so because prices have started rising. The instruction also applies to the other regions that grow flax. I repeat: we need a breakthrough. On the part of agrarians, scientists, and engineers. We need to learn how to cultivate quality long flax, constantly increase the volume of raw materials and end products. And short flax is also in demand. China makes everything but it wants short flax in order to make the necessary products. Why can't we make and sell fabrics to China instead of raw materials? We need to more boldly expand the sphere of applications, find methods to create new unconventional materials. For instance, composite ones.”
In his speech Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that Belarus had managed to accomplish a lot in flax farming and in making flax goods but most importantly it had managed to preserve the industry although there are still considerable problems.
“Flax farming tasks have been assigned. People responsible for them have been identified. They will be held accountable. However hard it can be, after all, flax is our national symbol. It is part of the state emblem. But that’s not the point. Belarus has always been a world leader in flax farming and in making flax goods and Vitebsk Oblast has been a flagship of this industry,” the president said.
He stated that flax is a complicated crop. This is why the willingness to grow flax is low across the world. Especially in private farming enterprises. Because flax can return to the field it once grew in only after 6-7 years and it is a big problem. “But we can grow flax in our collective farms that have thousands of hectares of land. And I think what I predicted 20 years ago has come true: the world has stopped cultivating as much of this crop as it needs today,” the Belarusian leader noted.
“But we’ve preserved it. We fought tooth and nail to cultivate flax and sell retted stalks. We’ve modernized linen mils and we have modernized Orsha Linen Mill twice,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed. “We were close to killing this crop in the 1990s. A crop, which profitability could go as high as 70%. Imagine that. We’ve radically changed the situation. Investments have allowed creating new flax varieties, new machines, and modernizing manufacturing facilities. Our Orsha Linen Mill is the largest one in Europe and the CIS.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that specialists and scientists in Belarus know how to grow flax very well but things are bad where people do not work well. “We have made good headway in order to expand the area under the crop, in order to increase the yield of the crop, and process it. And you, Vitebsk Oblast will be in the center,” the head of state said.
He stressed that a breakthrough into the future is needed not only in flax farming but also in other branches of agriculture.
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