Fethiye Chamber of Agriculture President Kenan Karayiğit noted that tomato producers wanted the excise tax on inputs to be lifted and their debts to be restructured while enjoying the 50,000-ton quota opened by Russia.
MUĞLA (İGFA) – {4 } Tomato producers in Fethiye and its surroundings welcome Russia’s new quota increase of 50 thousand tons and want this quota to be raised even more. While there have been problems in production due to excessive rainfall in recent days, the farmers drew attention to the producers’ production under difficult conditions. Tomato producers, who have entered into a feverish work due to the continuation of exports from Fethiye and its surroundings, complain about the low price.
The producers who stated that they had a difficult time due to the high SCT of the inputs in production and the unstructured debts to the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives. They said that he was gone and that they could not earn money. Nowadays, while the preparation of tomatoes for the domestic and foreign markets continues, they asked other European countries to have a market as well as Russia. The producers, who said that they always produced during the pandemic but could not get the production, emphasized that the cost of 1 kilo of tomatoes reached 3 TL.
TOMATO GO CHEAPER
Producer and tomato worker İlknur Karahan made a statement while separating tomatoes for export and said, “We choose tomatoes for market and export. We are working at the tomato picking place owned by İbrahim Aksarı and Sait Can. We are crafting tomatoes from the environment. We sort the tomatoes in 3-4 sizes and according to their maturity. We distinguish between tomatoes sent to the domestic market and export. From here, tomatoes go into the bowl. These processes will take two more months. Prices are now low. They say 1-1,5 TL. We also produce ourselves. We haven’t earned much this year. It costs a lot. A bottle of medicine starts from at least 300 TL. Even if it starts from 3 TL, it does not save the farmer. Fertilizers, medicines are expensive, tomatoes are cheap. We want the SCT on the entries to be lifted. ”
FIND NEW MARKETS
Kenan Karayiğit, President of the Fethiye Chamber of Agriculture reminded that 50 thousand tons of quota has been opened after the 200 thousand quota has been filled. Noting that tomato prices fluctuated between 1-1.5 TL before the quota was opened, Karayiğit said, “After the quota was opened, tomato prices were between 2-2.5 TL. This is not enough for our farmer. Because it costs 2.5 TL. When our farmer sells his tomatoes at this price, he can neither pay his debt nor save his tractor connected with foreclosure. Tomatoes should be 3-3.5 TL under the worst conditions. Russia, Turkey draws 51 percent of its exports. We wanted to open up to European countries and find new markets. Two restructuring was made for our tradesmen through Halk Bank, but no restructuring was made for our farmers. Interest-free debts were not postponed. We demanded them. We are waiting. Without production, it becomes a worse disease than a pandemic. ”
