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9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1.6 Agriculture sector news
“We are planning to harvest at least 9mn tonnes of grain in 2019,”
Belarus' Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister Vladimir Grakun said during the 3rd international forum “Agriculture in Belarus” on 26 February, BelTA has learned. “As for the volume, we are set to harvest at least 9mn tonnes of grain, 5mn tonnes of sugar beet, 1.2mn tonnes of potatoes. The harvest of vegetables and fruit is expected at the level of 2018. We will produce fodder enough to last for one and a half years. We have everything necessary to achieve these goals. The most important thing is to do everything right technologically: to prepare soil, apply mineral and organic fertilizers, to conduct timely planting and timely harvesting campaigns,” said Vladimir Grakun.
The Belarusian government is worried about the deteriorating situation in the nation's agrarian sector , which is the only sector that "remains in the negative territory," the country's Economy Minister Dmitry Krutoi told reporters on February 19.
"Unfortunately, the negative trends of the previous year continued into January. The production of livestock products, greenhouse vegetables, flowers has decreased," state news agency BELTA quoted Kriutoi as saying. "We need to understand what is going on: either the Belarusians have started to consume more imported products or our producers are underperforming."
What is even more important, the minister believes that the problems in agriculture are becoming systemic, which leads to a risk for our farmers being squeezed out from the country's traditional exports market - Russia. "We cannot allow this to happen," Krutoi said.
Meanwhile, according to national statistics agency Belstat, the nation's agricultural output declines by 1.9% year-on-year to BYN861.5mn in January (vs a growth of 4.4% y/y in January 2018). State-run agricultural enterprises are dominated in the country's economy. They remain for the most part losses-making, and require significant earlier state subsidies even when their production and trade results are positive.
9.1.9 Tourism sector news
Brest intends to attract over 50,000 visa-free tourists this year , the Brest Mayor Alexander Rogachuk said on February 15. The mayor said: “Thanks to the visa-free travel program more and more people come to Brest and explore it anew. The fact that we saw 18,500 visa-free tourists in 2018 confirms it. Grodno is a good reference point we should strive to match. This is why we would like to triple our number [of visa-free tourists] this year.” On the whole, in 2018 Brest earned $3.5mn by selling tourism services or twice as much as in 2017. The Brest mayor met with representatives of 22 Polish travel agencies on 15 February. He noted that Poland citizens account for over 70% of the foreigners coming to Brest without needing visas. “This visit is very important. The main task is to attract more Polish tourists, so that they could come to our city and get familiar with the common history. We would like to show that Brest
32 BELARUS Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com