THE RECENT increase in potato costs is due to a reduction in production levels by 30,000 tonnes, an increase in production costs, and increased demands in Europe for the Cyprus potato, Agriculture Minister Fotis Fotiou said yesterday.
At 45 to 55 cents per kilo, potatoes are about twice as expensive as they were at this time last August, considered a catastrophic year for potato producers primarily due to overproduction.
Representatives from agricultural organisations, the potato farmers, the Cyprus Potato Marketing Board, and the Consumers Association met with Fotiou yesterday to discuss the increase in potato prices, among other issues.
Fotiou noted after the meeting that under competition laws and free market conditions, the government cannot intervene to change the prices. “We must all understand that since our accession to the EU we have to obey certain free market and competition rules and regulations.
“Just as several years when the price of potatoes was low the government couldn’t intervene, so too now, though the prices may be different, the government again cannot intervene,” he said, adding that potato prices were higher in other EU countries than in Cyprus.
Fotiou said that the current high prices were due to bad weather conditions in Europe that in turn led to an increased demand for Cyprus potatoes, to higher production costs – a result of higher petrol prices – and decreased potato production in Cyprus.
According to statistics presented at the meeting, 90,000 tonnes of spring potatoes were produced this year, compared to 90,000 tonnes last spring, while 150 tonnes of potatoes had been brought from the north under the Green Line Regulation.
The Agriculture Minister said that the present high prices were merely seasonal and that by mid-October the Cyprus market would be replenished with fresh potatoes.
Representatives at the meeting yesterday also discussed whether any profiteering has taken place by middlemen. The Agriculture Minister asked the Competition Commission and the Consumer Protection Association to investigate the matter.
Head of the potato farmers association Nicos Vasilas has alleged that sellers often gouge consumers by charging them excessive amounts over their purchase cost, not only with potatoes but also with other vegetables such as onions, which he said are sold in a certain supermarket for 79 cents per kilo after being purchased for 17 to 20 cents.
Vasilas said that the potato farmers were presently selling potatoes to buyers for anywhere from 30 to 33 cents per kilo.
Last year, potato farmers, who were unable to even cover their production costs, clashed on numerous occasions with the government, which insisted it could not interfere with market laws by subsidising the farmers.
In their effort to secure a bailout package, the potato farmers staged a number of protests last winter, including a march from the Larnaca Rizoelia roundabout to the Presidential Palace, the blocking of the Dhekelia highway with tractors, and a lie-in blockade of the Rizoelia-roundabout, which led to the mass arrest of 54 potato farmers.
