KRASNOPOLYE DISTRICT, 14 April (BelTA) – People failing to store and use mineral fertilizers properly will be held responsible for it. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the relevant statement during a conference held on 14 April to discuss matters concerning the comprehensive social and economic development of Mogilev Oblast’s southeast in 2026-2030, BelTA has learned.
The president pointed out that in a period when high prices for mineral fertilizers had been observed on foreign markets, Belarusian manufacturers had continued providing the country’s agrarians with considerable volumes of fertilizers and at affordable prices upon instructions of the head of state. Back then Aleksandr Lukashenko wanted the agribusiness to use fertilizers as efficiently as possible in order to get good harvest. And back then he warned Agriculture and Food Minister Yuri Gorlov against improperly storing fertilizers in at least one agricultural enterprise. The official assured that it would not happen. However, careless attitudes to fertilizers had been revealed.
“How am I supposed to respond to that?” the head of state was indignant. “I ‘took’ money away from manufacturers. I ‘took’ money away from the state budget. Our revenues could have been five times higher. We could have earned hard currency. I gave to you and you wasted it!”
“Vasily Nikolayevich [Gerasimov, Chairman of the State Control Committee], sort it out all over the country and jail [the guilty ones],” the president told the chairman of the State Control Committee. “No more jokes.”
“There is ‘dictatorship’ in the country. The president gives an assignment but my subordinates fail to comply. What do you call that?” Aleksandr Lukashenko was critical. “[Deputy Prime Minister Yuri] Shuleiko and [Agriculture and Food Minister Yuri] Gorlov will be held accountable all the way if they don’t understand what I am saying. It is a no-brainer. I’ve simply explained to you what money the country could have earned and what political benefits are.”