"There Have Been No Belarusian Potatoes For Fifteen Years."

• 26.08.2025, 20:03

What Belarusians actually eat.

The editorial office of Charter97.org received a letter from a regular reader of the site, Alexander. In it he shared an interesting story:

- I like to meet my friends from Belarus. I like to ask what's going on in Belarus.

Feel the taste, smell and atmosphere of the country, because due to forced emigration, one loses the feeling of what is happening in the homeland.

Then I met my friend Dmitry and asked:

- Tell me, friend, how is it in Belarus, did the potatoes finally appear? Or was it more of an overblown problem than a real story?

- Sasha, tell me, when was the last time you bought potatoes at the market in Belarus?

- I never bought them, my mother-in-law and father-in-law are such experienced gardeners that I used to buy only overseas fruits and vegetables.

- Well, Sasha, we haven't had Belarusian potatoes for ten or fifteen years. Well, maybe twenty percent, if you pull it by the ears, will be enough. But all our potatoes are Egyptian, Tajik, Azerbaijani. Why should Belarusians plant potatoes if it floods or dries up? Belarusians are not fools to work at a loss!

My neighbor plants his whole plot with phacelia: firstly, it is an excellent mellifer, and secondly, the seeds can be sold to France for big money - for perfumery. So why should Belarusians be wasted for pennies?

And in general, do you think that Belarusians really have such salaries, as the statistics says? The forest feeds Belarusians. At the beginning of the season, chanterelles were bought for $7 per kilogram. So the Belarusians are working hard in summer to keep their feet dry in winter.

- So, do you have potatoes?

- They do, but the prices are high. But those who have not planted their own potatoes will eat Egyptian potatoes, they will not go anywhere...