Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 06/28/2025 4:32:25 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
The Belarusian ruler’s price controls have backfired.
Alexander Lukashenko’s stubborn grip on the Belarusian economy plunged the potato-happy country into a spud shortage this spring.
Critics of the authoritarian ruler, who in January grabbed a seventh term in power, say he has warped the economy with strict price controls on staples like potatoes — while encouraging citizens to snitch on grocery stores that flout regime rules.
The limits, launched by Lukashenko in October 2022 as he aimed to keep prices low and stave off inflation, instead made potatoes far less profitable for farmers to produce.
Opponents say that decisions made by Lukashenko’s team stunted production last year and pushed many cash-strapped farmers to sell their produce to neighboring Russia, humiliating the Minsk regime and crippling grocery stores expected to sell potatoes on the cheap.
Paltry potato price increases weren’t keeping up with rising costs for farmers and retailers, and the country's demotivated farmers in turn planted fewer potatoes. Belarus harvested 3.1 million tons of potatoes in 2024, down from more than 4 million a year prior.
“If you know from the history of the Soviet Union, when people don’t have motivation, you cannot really force them to do work very well,” said Lev Lvovskiy, academic director at the flagship Belarusian BEROC economic think tank.
The irony: Lukashenko himself once led a collective farm in Gorodets, in the east of modern-day Belarus, during the twilight years of Soviet communism.
The price controls instituted by Minsk made selling to Russia a highly profitable proposition. Potatoes cost over twice as much in Russia as in Belarus in March, according to BEROC data. And Belarus exported about 200,000 tons of potatoes to Russia in 2024, making it the No. 1 supplier of the staple crop to its neighbor.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.eu ...
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Remember to put the potato in THE FRONT of your Dnepr assault Speedo, not THE BACK.
The heartbreak of Chronic Mucus Disease.
He relies upon the ignorance of zeepers.
“In Belarus, the new potato harvest, including white potatoes, is typically available in stores starting in June.”
I used to be a wholesale produce manager - I would actually read the source of the produce on the boxes and bags.
I find that mucus clouds your vision.
Monetary inflation can’t be remedied by price controls. It is really sad that nobody learns from history and societies go through these insanities over and over.
The classic example is probably the French during their Revolution. They decreed that a loaf of bread could cost no more than X, which they decided would mean bread for everyone. Well the cost of flour and yeast was more than that. So there wasn’t any bread to be had at all.
The French, the Soviet Union, etc, was proof, Socialism cannot be made to work, even at the point of a gun and a pile of skulls. But this time will be different!
AKA .. "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work."
LOL, everything is fine in Belarus, that's why they needed to ban the export of potatoes. Okay
"Due to the resulting shortage, however, the regime temporarily banned the export of potatoes — including to Russia — absent a license beginning in December 2024. Many farmers have responded to the restrictions by labeling healthy potatoes as spoiled, and continued to funnel them to Russia, Lvovskiy told POLITICO."
This is our problem, k. We read and understand things. Occasionally, I even remember things! These are missing elements among our Zeepers.
You open most of your comments with LOL therefore you are officially known as:
tlolzo
Potato Racquet
The Russian answer to Pickle Ball?
The new potato harvest is also in, in Russia, idgit.
“The limits, launched by Lukashenko in October 2022 as he aimed to keep prices low and stave off inflation, instead made potatoes far less profitable for farmers to produce.”
no one could have EVER predicted such an outcome, not even in a million years, even with will all the best AIs grinding away at Warp 11 speed ...
Let them eat cake
Ba da bing
What I read, the translation of that isn’t the way we think.
“Cake” was the odds and ends, bits of burnt stuff remaining in large bread pans, not the bread itself. So if Marie actually said that, which is in some dispute perhaps, she wasn’t talking about Betty Crocker chocolate frosting yellow birthday cake.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.