Boss Has Gone

• ARTSIOM CHERNIKAU
• 11.12.2022, 15:53

The Bykhau cannery is an indicator of the situation at Belarusian enterprises.

The Economic Court of the Mahiliou Region decided to liquidate the Bykhov Canning and Vegetable Drying Plant OJSC (the Khozyain-Barin brand which means "the boss is the boss"). This Belarusian enterprise is engaged in fruit and vegetable and harvesting products. Over its 87-year history, it began to produce about 200 types of various kinds of goods and achieved a presence on the markets not only of the former Soviet republics, but also in Australia, Canada and Austria. The plant had been providing hundreds of jobs for many years and producing high-quality and competitive products until Lukashists-innovators came. From 2006 to 2010, the enterprise was reconstructed at the cost of several million dollars of investment. This made it possible to increase the volume of manufactured products, which subsequently accumulated in warehouses.

The enterprise was operating without losses for only a year after this reconstruction. They started to fill warehouses instead of selling goods in 2012 already. As a result, the plant's net earnings after paying wages, and paying for energy, raw materials, taxes, and loans amounted to only $400 for 12 months, which basically meant bankruptcy.

The advertisement for the plant's products explains the reasons for such low profits. Apparently, the millions spent have upgraded the buildings of the enterprise and the equipment itself, but the Lukashists did not bother to hire marketing professionals. They hoped that the Khozyain-Barin trademark would be sold without good advertising. But "agro-trash" of its own production only scared customers away.

In 2014, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against the plant. The net loss of the OJSC, which had 228 people employed, amounted to almost 6 billion rubles. This is about half a million dollars at the rate of 2014. And the following year, the plant barely worked three days a week. Then it was decided that an anti-crisis manager began to manage the plant. The plant's loans were frozen then and they gave a chance for its recovery. The period of reorganization of the economic situation of the enterprise was to last until July 14, 2022. It is already known how the story ended. The plant is being sold in parts for debts. But even this is not enough to recoup the reconstruction investment.

This is an example of the so-called "modernization to death". When millions of dollars are invested for a beautiful cover of Belarusian propaganda, and after ten years of work at a loss, they finally stop mocking the corpse of the food industry. There are dozens of such examples in Belarus. Many enterprises have already faced Lukashenka's "modernization" and have become bankrupt.

The Bykhau plant has become another litmus test of the situation in the country's economy. The negligence and unprofessionalism of the regime's top management have destroyed the remnants of what they call the economy. Some factories are under sanctions because of the dictator, and some are being ruined by the Lukashists themselves. At the moment, 128 enterprises of critical importance for the country's economy and social sphere are going bankrupt. Among them are the Carpets of Brest, the Brest KSM, the Mednovskaia poultry farm, the Teplopribor OJSC, the Brest Household Chemicals Plant, the Pinsk winery, the Telekhany Joinery Plant. Also, 27 agricultural enterprises have been declared bankrupt. All these are the results of the usurpation of power by Lukashenka and his lackeys, who have long destroyed the country's economy and are now dancing with a tambourine, trying to resurrect it.

Artsiom Chernikau, especially for the Basta Telegram channel