Visit to Minsk Dairy Plant No. 1

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashneko visited Minsk Dairy Plant No. 1 on 12 August.

During his visit to the factory the head of state gave an instruction to set up production of food packaging in Belarus by the end of the year.

“This packaging material should be produced domestically. The production of packaging should be launched by the end of the year. How come we cannot produce this plastic having a super-developed chemical industry?” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.

Packaging material for some types of products, such as milk, was purchased from abroad. It has become more difficult to do it recently, and this affected product supplies to the domestic market.

The head of state recalled that import substitution tasks have been set for several years already. Agriculture and Food Minister Igor Brylo will be in charge of launching the production of food packaging, while Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Zaits will oversee this matter.

Minsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Turchin proposed to increase prices for some whole milk products. According to him, this will improve the economic situation of enterprises. "There’s this only request... This is not a popular measure, of course. Unfortunately, the production of a number of items is money-losing. We do not want to profit off, but the production of some goods does generate any profits at all," he said.

"Are you proposing to raise prices for whole milk products?" Aleksandr Lukashenko asked directly.

"Some positions, not all products. In terms of milk..." the governor began to innumerate the positions.

"People buy mostly milk and kefir. You're an economist. What will we do with pensioners? There’s nothing more to say to it. We cannot count on price increases... Let's have higher milk yields. Then there will be higher profitability," the President replied.

Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled that the state has social obligations and one should not forget about them. And most importantly, he stressed, enterprises should increase profitability primarily through a more efficient manufacturing process, rather than price increases.