Veggies and Fruits Producers’ Associations Speak out about Catastrophic Situation

Associations of Vegetable and Fruit Producers and Exporters alerted the head of government, in a letter, of the catastrophic situation that the sector is facing since inflation kicked in, and stressed that the production system was experiencing record disruption.
The letter enumerated the various problems the sector is suffering from, such as drought, rainfall scarcity and temperature rise, in addition to VAT, which raises the prices of a variety of items.
The producers said they are the weakest link in the chain since they pay for the skyrocketing prices of fertilizers, of employees’ minimum wage and of transportation costs.
The production process involves numerous risks; in addition, intermediaries are adding significant profit margins before transferring products to the consumer, they said.
The associations gave the example of the “tomato” crisis, which resulted from the loss of a number of markets such as the Russian and the European markets.