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We investigate corruption, uncover fake news and analyze the news agenda. The BIC is a member of the global network of investigative journalists.

Our journalists are the recipients of the national award “Free Word” from the Association of Journalists of Belarus in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. At "Free Word" 2021 BIC’s team also received first place for Analytics

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Antifake / Factcheck

08 снежня 2022

Fake news of the week: Belarusian propaganda lies about Belarus' leadership in dairy production

The only cheese-related ranking where Belarus can actually be seen in fourth place is in the cheese export ranking. And that's only if the EU is counted as one player again. Then, after the EU, the US, and New Zealand, Belarus would be on the list

Authors:
Editors:

Uladzimir Kapuza, editor-in-chief of the Mahilyow agro-industrial newspaper "Zyamlya i ludzi", said on the air of the "In full voice" programme on the "Belarus-4 Mahilyow" TV channel that Belarus is among the top 5 countries in the world in milk production.

Kapuza lied. Here is the data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. As much as we would like to see Belarus in the top ten milk producers, it is not there. Belarus ranks 22nd in the world ranking with the production of 7.5 million tons of milk per year. The presenter of the programme "After the Fact: Lukashenka's Decisions” on BelTA YouTube channel Alena Krylova stated that Belarus is among top 5 exporters of dairy products in the world. And she lied, too.

Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Poland and Ireland are ahead of us on the list of top exporters. Thus, it turns out that Belarus is in 10th place and is not in the top 5.

Alena Krylova also lied about the statistics on cheese production:

“Belarus ranks fourth in the world in cheese production. We would have been in third place after the US and New Zealand, but for some reason the European Union goes for one player in global statistics. In any case, Belarus is ahead of Australia and Switzerland in gross cheese production”.

In the list of the largest cheese producers, Belarus is in 11th place. The top three are the European Union, Russia, and the United States. And even if the EU did not go for one player, but was divided into by countries, Belarus would be even lower in the ranking. Italy, Germany, and France alone produce more cheese than Russia. So they would push Belarus down to 18th place.

The only cheese-related ranking where Belarus can actually be seen in fourth place is in the cheese export ranking. And that's only if the EU is counted as one player again. Then, after the EU, the US, and New Zealand, Belarus would be on the list. It owns just over 3% of the world exports. Well, if we compare the countries, Belarus is only in 9th place.