Why “fly” the prices of vegetables and fruits?

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Just as the supply of the dollar in the market decreased and its exchange rate increased, so did the vegetables and fruits whose supply decreased as a result of the dollar crisis, which led to an increase in their prices at fantastic rates.

After the prices of vegetables and fruits were somewhat commensurate with the capacity of all social classes, they are now considered a luxury for a large segment of citizens after their insanely unjustified price increases in line with the high exchange rate of the dollar on the black market, pointing out that most of them are not imported but enter the country through Smuggling from Syria.

The Lebanese citizen is used to the high prices of vegetables and fruits during the month of Ramadan at rates that range between 10 and 20 percent. However, the increases currently observed ranged from 50 to 300 percent for some varieties, and they change daily, wiping them out from the table of the poor and even Middle social class. And if the plate of fattoush or tabbouleh was a traditional and indispensable dish, today it has become one of the luxurious dishes whose cost ranges from 25 to 40 thousand pounds, with the price of a kilogram of sour rising to 9,000 pounds, tomatoes 8000, option 5000, lettuce 3500, bagcula 1000, Capsicum 5000, parsley 1000, mint 1000, onion 3000, radish 1000 …

As for the seasonal fruits that are supposed to be available now at reasonable prices, they are also witnessing fantastic price increases, with the price per kilo of grapes reaching 9,000 Syrian pounds, cream 15,000, baladi banana 4,000 and Somali 9,000. , apples 6500, mango 13500, strawberry 15000 …

The same is true of other varieties of vegetables whose prices exceeded 100 percent, such as mushrooms (32,000 pounds), carrots (4,000), cabbage (3,000), iceberg (3,000), eggplant (5,000), cauliflower (4000), avocado (10000), Prieculi (9500) …

According to Antoine Al-Hawaik, director of the Lebanese Farmers Association, the recent price increase was due to the curfew decision. Al-Hawaik called on the interim government minister of the interior and municipalities, Muhammad Fahmy, to “facilitate the movement of agricultural machinery and trucks to deliver agricultural products to the market and cancel the ban on their movement on Sundays.” However, the prices of vegetables and fruits started their upward trajectory before the general closure and the curfew, especially with the collapse of the local currency exchange rate.

Al-Hawaik explained to Al-Jumhuriya that vegetables and fruits are lost from the market on Monday due to the impossibility of being delivered by farmers to wholesale markets on Sunday, the day during which all retail outlets are full after having exhausted all their stocks during the days of the week. He noted that the wholesale price of one kilogram of tomatoes, an indicator of vegetable prices, reached 3,000 pounds last Friday and rose to 6,000 pounds on Monday (the wholesale price), indicating that tomatoes found Currently on the market they are imported from Syria and not locally produced, as farmers are often waiting for the tomatoes to be unloaded. The Syrian, whose presence in the Lebanese market is inevitable, and during that period they grow local tomatoes, but this year they did not grow them due to the high cost of agricultural inputs and their inability to acquire them according to the dollar exchange rate in the market black.

Al-Hawaik explained that the support for agricultural inputs, seeds and fertilizers came late after the end of the season for the cultivation of most vegetables and fruits, and therefore most farmers did not benefit, which it forced to plant less than the usual amounts annually, “that is, for example, they reduced the number of tomato stores from 50 thousand Tienda to 30 thousand. As a result, the supply in the market decreased and prices increased.

He said that the Farmers Association had previously proposed to the government, with the onset of the exchange rate collapse, to support agricultural inputs worth 150 million dollars annually over the official exchange rate of 1500 pounds, because it ensures agricultural production by value of a billion dollars annually and keeps vegetable prices at their previous levels. However, no one paid attention to developing an agricultural strategy and vision.

Al-Hawaik also pointed out that the main reason for the current increase in prices of vegetables and fruits is the decrease in supply due to the inability of farmers to secure agricultural supplies and maintain the same level of production, which led to an increase in the volume of imports from Syria in accordance with the licenses granted by the Ministry, in order to meet the demand in the Lebanese market. In all varieties of vegetables and fruits.

On the other hand, he pointed out that Lebanese agricultural products have become more competitive in foreign markets as a result of the dollar crisis, which caused a decrease in their costs for the foreign importer, highlighting that “if it had not been for financial obstacles for the export of land through Syria, the local agricultural production would have been exported in its entirety. Abroad, and it was completely lost in the local market. ‘