THE MINISTRY of Agriculture yesterday urged potato growers not to go ahead with today’s planned protests and to reach a civilized agreement through dialogue.
Potato growers will take to the roads today demanding subsidies form the government and cash incentives to leave the failing profession; they have not said which roads they would block.
Agriculture Minister Timis Efthymiou repeated yesterday that the government was unable to meet the farmers’ financial demands.
He also said potato growers were partially to blame for the situation they now found themselves in.
“The Ministry has desperately and continuously tried in the last two years to convince potato growers that they need to co-ordinate both production as well as trade. But unfortunately our suggestions and pleas were not accepted, resulting in this year’s bad results.”
Competition amongst potato growers was also a key factor, he continued.
“Unacceptable competition went on between the various groups of producers who were in charge of trading our potatoes, which resulted in a significant price drop abroad.”
The government had presented potato growers with a support plan last year, the Minister went on, and it was prepared to discuss any alterations to improve it.
“The financial aspect of the programme is £5 million. If there are suggestions to alter this we are willing to discuss them,” Efthymiou said, stressing that the government’s financial abilities would have to be taken into consideration.
But this is not money that is available to the farmers, says Potato Growers’ Association head Andreas Karyos.
“The £5 million the Minister is referring to is part of the Rural Development Plan. A third of the money goes to the officials and the rest is spent on the implementation of the plan. Farmers get nothing, so the Minister can stop referring to this plan as a kind of resolution,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
“We are asking for a national plan, which will be supported by national resources and which will include financial support to offset falling trade as well as compensation for leaving the profession,” added Karyos.
But Efthymou said the government would not back down in order to avoid public disruption. “It is the farmers’ right to protest for the satisfaction of their demands, but not when it is at the expense of other members of the public.”
Former Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous said yesterday the previous government had helped farmers at times of need.
But Efthymiou had little time for his criticisms: “Things that used to happen in the past, resulting in the irrational granting of millions of pounds, with the ultimate result of a 7 per cent fiscal deficit in 2003, cannot continue,” he said.
It would be easier, added the Minister, simply to hand out money with parliamentary elections looming, but he wondered where that would leave the economy.
