OREANDA-NEWS. On August 10, 2009 President Alexander Lukashenko continued his tour of Belarus’ regions by visiting the Grodno Region, reported the Official website president.gov.by.

The President focused on the harvest campaign in the region, on the efficiency of the agricultural production, and on meat and poultry production employing the latest technologies.

In a helicopter flight over the fields, Alexander Lukashenko surveyed the progress in the ongoing harvest campaign and was not pleased with the picture.

‘I am not impressed by the results of the Grodno Region. On my way here I was looking forward to seeing the harvest coming to its completion, but now I see that too many fields are still standing uncut,’ said the Head of State. ‘We have got used to see the people of the Grodno region always work quickly and effectively. And what I saw has left a mediocre impression on me. I was expecting for more,’ he added.

The President once again underscored the need for speeding up the harvest. ‘One should try to cut 6 per cent of crops every day, not less,’ he said.

Today, the harvest in the Grodno Region is 62 per cent finished, with an average yield of 47.7 centners per hectare, or the same as last year. According to Governor Vladimir Savchenko, this year the region expects a harvest of 1.6 million tonnes of grain (not including private farms). The corn harvest is also expected to be more than last year (last year it was 250,000 tonnes).

All in all, a total of 4.8 million tonnes of grain have been harvested across the country to date. According to Semyon Shapiro, Minister of Agriculture and Food, last year’s level has been met, and this year the harvest began one week later than last year.

In the course of his tour of the Grodno Region the Head of State visited affiliates of such agricultural producers as OAO Grodnokhleboprodukt, joint private unitary company Skidelskoye, joint ZAO GrodnoBioprodukt, and Yubileiny, a pedigree poultry incubator. Such a form of large-scale goods production makes it possible to operate the business on a flexible basis and fine-tune the production to the demands of the day. OAO Grodnokhleboprodukt is a big agricultural holding company, owing 31,500ha of arable land, 4 pig farms, a large cattle fattening farm, and more than a dozen of affiliates. In January-June 2009 its reported revenues exceeded Br205 billion.

The President was satisfied with the performance of this holding company and said that it can be an example to follow by all other agricultural producers across Belarus.