OREANDA-NEWS. November 17, 2009. Most Belarusian vegetable stores fail to meet requirements and need to be upgraded, Trade Minister Valentin Chekanov said during a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

“In the 143 organizations that we inspected, only 33% of stores and 49% of refrigerators meet modern requirements, hence poor quality of vegetables,” Chekanov said.

The chair of the State Standards Committee, Valery Koreshkov, confirmed that many stores were not equipped with temperature meters, and only 66% of vegetable stores had been certified as ready for this winter.

The Trade Ministry and Agriculture Ministry lobby a 120 billion-ruble loan to upgrade the stores, but Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky did not support lending to the services responsible for storing vegetables. He criticized the Standards Committee for the low certification rate and said uncertified stores must not operate at all.