Food safety in Belarus is ensured all year round. Find out how the planting of crops in the stable funds

Belarus is doing everything necessary to ensure that fruits and vegetables are always available to consumers. How is the planting of crops in stable funds and why are maximum retail prices for certain products set in the off-season? President of Belarus Alexander-Lukashenko:

- Therefore, if possible, it is necessary to put it (in stabilization funds). In winter, so that in winter and spring our people could get the necessary agricultural products at normal prices.

At the republican conference call on the harvesting campaign, July 26, 2022.

Achieving the necessary level of food security of the country is a sustainable basis for the socio-economic development of the state. To ensure this, Belarus has formed a system of state regulation of the food market, which is a set of legal, economic and administrative measures aimed at supporting domestic agricultural producers, as well as regulating prices for agricultural products and food products.

The main task of stabilization funds is to create stocks of certain types of fruits and vegetables in order to guarantee uninterrupted supply of them to the population in the off-season period. This mechanism, together with the current price regulation, allows for a clear functioning of the domestic market.

To guarantee the provision of consumers with fruit and vegetable products in the off-season period 2026/2027, the experience of previous years, when there were spikes in demand for some items, was taken into account. Thus, 9,533 tons of cucumbers and 6,050 tons of tomatoes are laid in the stabilization funds, selling prices for the starting period are fixed, and the possibility of their subsequent revision annually until March 20 is established. Stabilization funds are formed to ensure not only physical, but also price availability of fruits and vegetables in the off-season period. Already, work is actively underway to lay products in the stabilization funds of the country's regions by both agricultural organizations and peasant (farm) farms. Great attention is paid at the state level to the issue of storage of agricultural products. The President’s order for the reconstruction, modernization of vegetable stores and the construction of new facilities with a total volume of 111.2 thousand tons is being fulfilled. Emphasis is placed on the introduction of modern innovative and digital technologies that take into account the complex of interrelated parameters of the microclimate (exact control of temperature, humidity, air composition, air exchange), providing the necessary conditions for the safety of products. This will allow organizations to minimize product losses and guarantee income from sales in the winter-spring period.

Since 2023, the Tolochinsky Cannery has been implementing a project to build a potato storage facility, where products are stored in a gas environment using a natural ethylene growth inhibitor. In addition to reducing the intensity of metabolic processes, the technology allows you to stop the development of diseases, reduce potato losses, increase the shelf life and at the same time ensure the quality characteristics of the product.

And the farm "Julian" in the framework of the state program for the development of potato growing has built a modern potato store for 7 thousand tons. It is worth noting that the potato storage has equipment for washing, sorting, grinding and packaging of grown vegetable products with a capacity of up to 80 tons per shift. And next to the fields, two vegetable stores with a total capacity of 3 thousand tons were built.

Further development of production, processing and storage of fruit and vegetable products is provided for in the State Program “Agro-industrial complex of the future” for 2026-2030 and the Strategy for the development of greenhouse vegetable production for 2023-2027. The state relies on large-scale technological modernization, the key element of which should be the creation of a modern greenhouse with an innovative production and sales infrastructure. The main feature is the integration of artificial intelligence systems, which will automatically control plant growth, nutrient intake, temperature and light level. Already now, in the off-season, year-round cultivation of products using light culture technology has been introduced at ten greenhouse plants of the country. It allows to increase production volumes in a short time and with less capital investment in the critical winter-spring period. The transition to such technologies is associated with significant financial costs, especially for electricity. In the off-season period, the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade sets a stimulating electricity tariff for greenhouses depending on the performance of tasks for the production of cucumbers and tomatoes. Therefore, state support remains the most important economic tool for agricultural policy and regulation of the food market in Belarus. To develop the marketing infrastructure and increase the efficiency of using the export potential, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive strategy for the development of online trade in products in Belarus. The purpose of this strategy is to ensure the effectiveness of sales of products by maximizing the coverage of the population and its prompt delivery to consumers. For its practical implementation, it is important for the state to provide for the creation of an aggregator site and a mobile application for the sale of products, and at the level of organizations - the development of its own online store and cooperation with existing electronic trading platforms in the country.

As world practice shows, food industry subjects widely use freeze-drying vacuum drying, rapid (shock) freezing, catalytic infrared radiation, ozonation, processing in pulsed electric fields, high hydrostatic pressure, electromagnetic pulses, ohmic heating, cold plasma, ultraviolet disinfection. The use of new technologies by processing organizations will further expand the range of products taking into account both our and foreign consumers. Systematic work in this area opens up new directions for Belarus not only to saturate the domestic market with fruits and vegetables, but also to increase the country's export potential.

THEME

According to the resolution of the Council of Ministers of Belarus "On the order and conditions of supply of fruit and vegetable products from stabilization funds of goods for republican state needs" for the off-season period 2026/2027, the volume of fruit and vegetable products in the amount of

Natalia Kireenko, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor.