Ministry of Agriculture and Food: Belarus practically does not purchase durum wheat varieties; its selections are quite good

Belarus practically does not purchase durum wheat varieties; its selections are quite good. Nikolai Leshik, head of the main department of crop production of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, spoke about this in the BELTA project “The Country is Speaking”. In recent years, durum wheat varieties have not been purchased en masse. “Our domestic selections are already quite good in their baking qualities. This is a stable third class for wheat, which allows us to produce even pasta products with new technologies. Processors usually want gluten to be at the level of 25-26%, or even 28%, spring and some winter wheat produces such gluten. This requires 100% implementation of the technology,” he noted. Already last year, almost no durum wheat varieties were purchased from Belarus. “We are improving both varieties by breeders and technologies of processors,” said Nikolai Leshik. The ...