Chinese fail to get crops in Belarusian land again

A Chinese agricultural enterprise "CinaBelAgro" was registered in the Pruzhany district executive committee in the beginning of the year. They were given a plot of land in Shcherchy rural council. This was the second attempt to organize a Chinese farm at the Belarusian land for the last 2 years: last year it were the Chinese from the foreign enterprise "Shenyan". Then, in spite of rather good harvest, "Shenyan" bankrupted, the Chinese left and the farm fell neglected.

The "new" Chinese not only received the same plot of land, they even wanted to grow the same vegetables as their precedors - caggabe, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants etc. However, the results of their work, as it became known to the European Radio for Belarus, were the same, according to the Deputy Head of Pruzhany district executive committee Marya Stsepaniuk.

Marya Stsepaniuk: “They planted 44 hectares of early ripening cabbage - it overgrew with wild grass and rotted. There's nothing left there. As for their plans with regard to melons and watermelons, there probably was something like that. The field was not covered with grass, I saw some normal leaves on it. They also planted belated carrots in the beginning of July. However, I haven't seen it and I strongly doubt there is any. They also seeded tomatoes. I saw those tomatoes among the grass, I even saw two young fruits over there, but that's not serious”.

There were approximately 100 Chinese people working for "Shenyan". "CinaBelAgro" has 12 people per 100 hectares of land. According to Maria Stsepaniuk, specialists strongly advised not to forget to treat the plants with plant-protecting agents. However, it was hard for the Chinese to do that.

Marya Stsepaniuk: “We strongly recommended them to work with plant-protecting agents, but while they were contemplating on it, then calling to Brest, connecting with Minsk, they simply let the time limits elapse. There should be a certain development of plants: before sprouting, after sprouting, during other phases of develoment. And they... they haven't done anything serious there so far”.

Last year the Belarusian Ambassador in China Anatol Tozik claimed that a new Chinese investment project was to be implemented at the territory of Pruzhany district - a greenhouse complex. According to the plan, there should have been several hundred of greenhouses with a house attached to each one of them, with a Chinese family living in it. That should have made approximately a thousand people. He also claimed vagons with greenhouses had allegedly been kept at the border waiting for a privileged customs clearance. In March the Deputy Director of "CinaBelAgro" Viachaslau Panou told the European Radio for Belarus that "the Chinese are planning to build 10 big greenhouses, which will work the whole year long, and several seasonal greenhouses". However, according to the Deputy Head of the executive committee, the Chinese not only failed to bring greenhouses from China, they even failed to build them of local materials.

Marya Stsepaniuk: “The greenhouses coming in vagons somehow failed to arrive. The Chinese started to build something of jardines but never finished. They started assembling their own construction - it is still lying disembodied on the field. They could not complete anything”.

Viachaslau Panou also told that they would hire local inhabitants and pay them no less than 20-25 thousand roubles per day. However, the European Radio for Belarus was informed in the local medical and obstetric center, that none of the local inhabitants went to work for the Chinese.

Medical and obstetric center employee: “Who will neglect his own job to go to work for them for 25 thousand? People can earn more on picking mushrooms and berries. Both are seasonal jobs”.

She added that there were not too many Chinese in the village - they were either in the fields, or in a barrack located at the territory of the former military settlement. They addressed to doctors only twice - injured themselves when working in the field. However, the paramedic said local inhabitants did not have the best impressions of the guests during these two years.

Medical and obstetric center employee: “This year they are quiet and unseen, there are no conflicts with the local people. However, last year there were more of them and they constantly walked round the medical and obstetric center and threw litter all the time. They did not follow any rules, just threw everything on the ground - seeds, crisps packages, ice-cream packing paper - everything”.

The European Radio for Belarus asked the Deputy Director of "CinaBelAgro" Viachaslau Panou how the farm was doing. However, he said he had been on vacation for 2 months and did not know the exact situation. The interpreter Anatol added in bad Russian that he had no right to talk to journalists without a special permit from the district executive committee. However, after the European Radio for Belarus had received such a permit, Anatol simply stopped answering the phone.

Besides, according to Marya Stsepaniuk, the executive committee is thinking about selling or transferring the farm to somebody else.