A COMPROMISE deal was thrashed out yesterday between the government and angry potato growers, to be awarded £4.25 million in compensation for weather damage to their crops.
The decision was announced by Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis, following a meeting of the Cabinet yesterday.
The decision came a week after behind-the-scenes negotiations between farmers’ associations, unions and the government, and 10 days after potato growers blocked access to Larnaca airport in a show of force. Last Monday, the government moved to defuse tensions, agreeing to pay out £1 million in immediate relief aid.
In addition to the £4.25 million compensation to potato growers, the rest of the agricultural community would be receiving £6 million, Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous said yesterday. Themistocleous added that the cash would be made available as soon as possible.
Overall, the compensation would amount to a cash payment of around £500-£600 per family.
For his part, Rolandis said the sum should be considered “satisfactory.” But the Cabinet’s decision came under fire from trade union SEK, saying the compensation was inadequate and late in coming. Last week, farmers associations were floating a £5.6 million figure.
SEK general secretary Costas Constantinides was particularly critical of the fact that £250,000 pounds of the potato growers’ compensation would come from their social security fund, according to the Cabinet’s decision, which Constantinides dismissed as “predictable”.
He went on to lash out at the government for its delayed response to the plight of the farming community, which led to the takeover of Larnaca airport.
“Although we do not condone such actions, nevertheless it could all have been averted if the government had listened to the farmers early on,” said Constantinides.
In the wake of the mayhem caused at the airport, national carrier Cyprus Airways also asked for compensation from the government; the figure cited was around half a million pounds. But yesterday the Cabinet issued a laconic statement: CY would be receiving no damages payout.
The Cabinet has said it will be reconvening again in early January to review the situation; the farming community claims that, despite the cash payments, it is still in dire straits. Last year’s damages to crops have been coupled by more destruction by freak hailstorms this winter.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
