May 3, 2013

Belarus needs as much as BYR9.5 trillion (US$1.1 billion) to complete the reconstruction of dairy farms in the country by October 1, 2013.

The information was released by Sergei Fedchenko, Head of the Central office for control over the operation of agribusiness and environmental protection of the State Control Committee of Belarus, on May 2.

The official commented on the progress in revamping dairy farms. The effort was launched in 2011 and is supposed to be completed by October 1, 2013. A total of 1,208 dairy farms have to be remodelled, with the reconstruction of 311 ones complete so far.

In order to complete the reconstruction taking into account the start-up complexes commissioned in 2013 as much as BYR9.5 trillion (US$1.1 billion) is required while BYR7.6 trillion (US$877 million) is lacking. Sources to finance the reconstruction have not been determined yet, specified Sergei Fedchenko. He reminded that own money of agricultural enterprises, including bank loans, was supposed to be used for it. It is likely that bank loans will be utilised to complete the reconstruction, said the official.

Due to financing problems the work has been halted at many facilities. Moreover, the money agricultural enterprises owe to contractors exceeded BYR4 billion (US$462,000) as of April 18. The situation is particularly alarming in Vitebsk Oblast, Gomel Oblast, and Mogilev Oblast.

Nikolai Labushev, Director General of the Belarusian association for agribusiness support Belagroservice, said that all the measures have been taken to make the necessary equipment: milking parlours, milk delivery lines, cooling equipment, with as much as BYR1.3 trillion (US$150 million) allocated for it. As many as 200 installation teams have been prepared to build dairy farms, with a total of about 300 teams used for this work. One team takes three weeks to deploy a milking parlour. So theoretically the work should be completed on time, remarked Nikolai Labushev.

However, about 300 sets of equipment are still in warehouses because the relevant premises have not been prepared. After analysing the situation the government has allocated BYR630 billion (US$73 million) in extra funding for the reconstruction.

Several reasons are behind the delays. According to Sergei Fedchenko, the reconstruction that requires revamping and building 1,208 farms has not been seen in Belarus in the previous 5-7 years. Some agricultural enterprises were not prepared for the work, did not have sufficient money and construction materials. Apart from that, after the Belarus president issued the instruction to reconstruct dairy farms, some district administrations took too long to determine which farms should be revamped and what works should be done.

According to Valery Skripkin, Head of the Agribusiness Operation Control Office of the State Control Committee, the equipment for the reconstruction is manufactured in Belarus using modern foreign technologies.