“Gold reserve” of tractors to be hidden in Trastsianets?

Managers of Minsk Tractor Plant (MTZ) solve problems of clearing the plant's inventory.

A part of unsold goods was moved from the capital at the weekend. A column of scores of new tractors was noticed on Partyzanski Avenue in Minsk on Saturday. They were moving to the village of Trastsianets, readers of charter97.org report.

Users of social networking websites confirmed this information.

“Became a witness of an dreadful sight. A long column of our tractor reserves was moving to Trastsianets,” Kanstantsin Lisetski wrote on his account on Vkontakte social networking wesbtei.

The press service of Minsk Tractor Plant traditionally answers the plant has no problems with marketing. They also noted they “got tired a little” of calls from journalists who “worry about the plant's inventory”.

Director general Uladzimir Vauchok earlier said the plant had no problems with sales.

“The tractors in the plant's storage area are our 'gold reserves', which, I believe, we will convert into currency,” he said.

An MTZ worker said in May about problems with selling the plant's products.

“More than 20,000 tractors can be seen in the territory of the plant and in the village of Abchak. Tractors stand everywhere, even on pedestrian paths, in the territory of the plant. People had to squeeze through unsold vehicles. The Google Maps pictures, which were recently published on the website, were taken last year. They are old. Now the entire area of the plant is filled with tractors. Old workers say the situation was better even in the turbulent 1990s,” the worker wrote.

Sources at the plant said some days ago that plant officials looked for the ways to unload inventories. Employees were proposed to take “excess” tractors into safekeeping.

Overstock at plants raises serious concerns of the authorities. In May, head of the Minks city executive committee Mikalai Ladutska severely criticised Minsk officials over the problem.

According to him, the city failed to fulfil the tasks of the social and economic development in the last four months. The region's gross product was 42.6 trillion rubles. The region goes behind the plans on industrial output, product exports and capital investments.

Significant finished goods stocks poses a great danger to economy of enterprises.

Lukashenka recently proposed his idea of struggling with stocks of the country's automotive giants. He ordered to clear stocks by selling vehicles to collective farms at a discount of 30%.

A number of Belarusian plants, including MAZ, had to work four days a week since the early spring due to absence of demand for their products.