Government blames overproduction on market forces

TOMATOES ending up in landfills were just the sad end result of market forces and the problem could not be blamed on poor government planning, Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous said yesterday.

Growers from Maroni and Tochni, in the Larnaca area, have been dumping tonnes of their tomatoes, claiming that government pressure to produce more had led to bumper harvests and driven market prices to “humiliating” lows.

“You cannot programme production to match demand at all times. You will get dumping when there is overproduction and high prices when there is low production,” Themistocleous said.

He also defended state tomato policy: “Producers were encouraged to produce tomatoes of a certain set quality to meet EU demands but we cannot control production or the laws of supply and demand.”

“The phenomenon of tomatoes going to landfills is not uniquely Cypriot, it exists in all countries and will continue to exist,” the Minister said.

Tomato growers plan to protest about the problem outside parliament tomorrow, but have said they will not be dumping any tomatoes on the doorstep of the House.

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