The Citrus Growers’ Association of South Africa has granted the mother of newborn Pyotr Nikolayev from Kaliningrad, who is being recognized as the seven-billionth person, a gift certificate for 1 ton of oranges.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Russia’s Federal Service for State Statistics decided that seven-billionth person honors 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 center 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 70 15-kilogram 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.
Pyotr is the family’s third child. The parents already have an older son and a daughter.
Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Kaliningrad maternity center 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.