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The Covid emergency continues to cause serious damage to the economy, including the agricultural one. As proof of this, a story that comes from Lusia, the homeland of agricultural production, nationally and internationally. The story concerns 200 containers (large rigid plastic containers), each containing about 250 kilograms of consumer potatoes, still in the cold rooms of a company, the “Andrea Pavarin” farm, located in via Luigi Cotta 992, due to the stop to which the cruises for Covid 19 were forced.
A total of 50 tons of potatoes, corresponding to a fifth of the company’s production (the rest was destroyed directly in the field, given the situation). These are potatoes that were harvested between July and August, with the aim of being able to sell them, in the auctions of the Padua fruit and vegetable market, to traders who buy them precisely to load them on the cruise ships. “We hope that the Covid 19 emergency will be overcome as soon as possible – says the owner of the company, Andrea Pavarin – This year, due to Covid, we have already lost 7-8% of turnover. But if we had also managed to sell these potatoes, we would have reached last year’s turnover ”. The Lusia company has been working with cruise ships for about ten years. The ships have now been stopped for months due to the health emergency, which is still continuing. The Lusia-based company has 25 employees and produces vegetables in the greenhouse (products such as salads, carrots, cabbages and aubergines) and in the open field or outdoors (products such as sauerkraut, potatoes, garlic, leek, salad).
“The potatoes that I now have in my cell were produced before I bought them for cruise ships, but we couldn’t sell them, explains Andrea Pavarin, we should have supplied the boats in July, August and September. But if the boats do not load, there are no auctions or sales ”. An alternative sales channel could have been restaurants, but there is a price problem here. “In this case, when it comes to restaurants, we cannot maintain competitive prices: French and German products reach the market and are very cheap. I don’t even have the convenience of going to the market ”.
“We keep the potatoes in the cell until the end, they can stay a fortnight more, then I have to free up space for winter products – adds the farmer – there are two alternatives: or throw them out in the field; or find someone to come and get them, picking up at least one trash can. “
In any case, the economic damage is done, given that a quantity of potatoes with a commercial value of at least 15 thousand euros would remain unsold, to which must be added a production cost of about 10 thousand euros.
Andrea Pavarin concludes by inviting them to go look for the potatoes, to prevent them from being thrown away: “Anyone interested can come and collect the potatoes for free, but they must take at least one bucket by contacting me.” The email to contact the company is: [email protected].
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