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‘One in Ten Tractors Globally is Belarusian.’ Inflated Figures on Lukashenko’s Birthday Fact-checked
“Belarusian vehicles, like Swiss ones, are a global brand. Approximately every tenth tractor on the planet is a ‘Belarus’ tractor.”
In the world, 10% of tractors are of Belarus-made. This claim was aired on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) TV channel, “Red Line,” in honor of Alexander Lukashenko's birthday. The Weekly Top Fake team discovered that this number is wrong, it's at least six times smaller.
The “every tenth Belarusian tractor” was mentioned on the air of the CPRF TV channel “Red Line” on August 28, 2024.
“When I saw the Bat'ka at the wheel, at the helm of the combine harvester they created... And every tenth tractor in the world is Belarusian,” Valentin Karasev, Doctor of Philosophy, said.
On August 20, 2024, Kirill Kazakov, editor-in-chief of the Belarus state-run newspaper “Minsk Courier”, echoed this figure on the program “Azarenok. Napryamuyu”:
“Here is the very tractor diplomacy that operates all over the world... 10% of the world’s tractors are produced in Belarus.”
This number was also mentioned on Belarus state-run TV CTV back in 2016:
“Belarusian vehicles, like Swiss ones, are a global brand. Approximately every tenth tractor on the planet is a ‘Belarus’ tractor.”
The speakers making these claims did not specify the type of tractor: agricultural, wheeled, or all types combined.
According to the Italian National Federation of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers, 2.2 million agricultural tractors were sold worldwide in 2023. The Belarus agriculture machinery manufacturer, “Minsk Tractor Works”, reported it produced 34,000 tractors during the same period.
Therefore, even assuming that the number of tractors sold globally equals the number produced, Belarusian tractors accounted for approximately one in 67, or roughly 1.5%, of the global total.
