Belarus to continue supplying Agric material: Belarus Minister

By Vimbai Kamoyo

The Belarus government will continue to equip Zimbabwe’s farmers with equipment from that country, Belarus Deputy Minister has asserted.

Speaking at the Zimbabwe-Belarus Business Forum this week, Belarusian Industry deputy minister Dimtry Kharitonchik said his country will continue to supply Zimbabwe with agricultural machinery the country desperately needs.

“We are happy to hear positive feedback from the customers of our agricultural machinery. I am confident that the wide range of Belarusian agricultural machinery products will be of great interest to the future consumers of agricultural machinery products,” he said.

“It will continue to be in demand on the Zimbabwean markets and will also allow us to increase the efficiency of agriculture in Zimbabwe as part of the mechanisation programme,” he said.

Zimbabwe and Belarus have since the beginning of the Second Republic strengthened bilateral relations with exchange visits between the countries’ presidents.

On his visit early last year Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko offered Zimbabwe tractors, combine harvesters and trucks.

In turn, Emmerson Mnangagwa gave the President of Belarus a taxidermy lion – the king of animals and one of the strongest animals in Africa.

According to some media reports, to-date, Belarus has delivered 18 000 tractors and 80 combine harvesters as part of a mechanization programme to support farmers.

In April last year, Zimbabwe’s First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa also went to Minsk (capital of Belarus). The official purpose of her visit was purportedly based on her interest in the Belarusian healthcare system, assistance to children, and the production of baby food.

The country’s independent media criticized the visit, saying it was not within the provisions of Zimbabwe’s law for the president’s spouse to conduct state visits.

It was also mentioned that she was accompanied by ‘controversial’ businessman Aleksander Zingman, who was appointed honorary consul for Zimbabwe by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2019 and was described by journalists studying the Pandora Papers (11.9 million leaked documents that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published beginning on October 3, 2021) as one of the co-owners of a joint venture which mined gold in Zimbabwe under a shadow deal.