Kaliningrad: South Africa's Citrus Growers' Association has granted a gift certificate of a ton oranges to the mother of newborn Pyotr Nikolayev from Kaliningrad, who is being recognised as the seven-billionth person.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Russia's Federal Service for State Statistics decided that seven-billionth person honours would go to the first baby born on October 31, 2011, since it would be impossible to determine the actual baby who put the planet's population over seven billion.
The association's representative in Russia, Irina Merkel, arrived at Kaliningrad's maternity centre and handed Pyotr's mother, 36-year-old Yelena Nikolayeva, the certificate, along with flowers and a token baskets of oranges.
"We are granting Petya's [Pyotr's] parents a certificate for seventy 15-kg boxes of oranges, they can get them in any of our chain's stores in the Kaliningrad. We have not set a deadline, so Pyotr's parents can get the oranges whenever they want," Merkel said.
The newborn Pyotr is the family's third child, as his parents already have a son and a daughter.
Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Kaliningrad maternity centre where Pyotr was born.
The UN has not formally designated a seven-billionth inhabitant and many different countries have marked the event.
In the Russian cities of St Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatksky, UN representatives handed out certificates to the parents of newborns who are "seven-billionth" candidates.
IANS
First Published: Friday, November 04, 2011, 13:14