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High costs and lack of workers/ The difficulties faced by farmers in the areas of Korça

2024-05-31 09:59:00, Aktualitet CNA

Cherry picking has already started in the southeast. CNA TV has traveled to the village of Dvoran in Korça to see closely the current situation that the farmers of this area are facing.

The village of Dvoran is known as one of the villages where all families are engaged in fruit cultivation. Although for years investments in various products such as apples, plums and cherries, it seems that not everything is going well for these farmers.

Ardian Selim, a farmer for more than 30 years, was in one of the plots of the village, through which he showed the situation in which the farmers are facing this year, comparing it with other years, and appealing to the Rama government. .

Since 1993, Ardian Selim decided to develop fruit growing in his village, taking plots and planting them with different products. From this year until 2008, everything went very well, but the Open Balkans seems to have damaged the farmers a lot. In addition to the high costs of agricultural inputs, the lack of workers remains a separate problem.

"With the distribution of agricultural lands, I started cultivating fruit crops, apples, plums, cherries. From 1993 until 2008, we had a good progress in the sale of production, product quality. From 2008 until now, the Balkans Hapur has ruined a lot of work for us because the goods that come from abroad come at a low cost, while we have expensive market prices for medicines and fertilizers. Now we also have difficulties for workers, they all leave here, they leave for Germany, Italy, Belgium. There is an aging population here, the younger generation does not work", he said.

He made a comparison between the first years of his activity as a farmer, until today, showing the great change they have undergone.

"They have been very good for us. The goods were sold, there were workers. In those years, we were not well organized because, being economically empowered, I bought warehouses, tractors, aggregates. While, in the first years, we were in primitive conditions, the cherry was worked with a belt, now there is a tractor with mechanics that makes the work easier. Now the production cost is lower, the price is cheap, we still have no result", he said further.

The cherry, although of a fairly good quality, does not seem to be finding a market. With a big price change within 1 year, for Ardian all the work remains without any positive result.

"Last year the price was sufficient. It was 2,500 old lek at the beginning, it ended at 1,500 old lek. While this year, from the beginning it is 700 old lek. 400 lek per kilogram is taken by the workshop, 300 is left for me. Only the cars that I take and take the workers, that 300 lek is gone and I work in vain", he said.

The 59-year-old farmer raises a problem that is noticed in most of the villages of the southeast, that of depopulation. Regrettably, he says it is difficult to make ends meet as he takes the opportunity to appeal to the government to turn its attention to farmers who are not few.

"The young generation is gone, it's gone abroad. The third age group, 50 years old and older, is left here. There are about 450 farmers here, every family in Dvoran works with fruit growing. Who has smaller areas, who has bigger ones, the income for They can't take out the whole family. I can't afford it. The state gave up on agriculture, but Rama has set fire to it. It doesn't help, it has to give us oil as Greece, Italy, at half price, remove the VAT from chemical fertilizers, so that I can put more cherry and it will be of high quality", he said.

As in the case of Ardian Selim, there are tens and hundreds of others in the southeastern region. A situation that every year makes it more and more difficult to generate income, which unfortunately in the future can destroy any family, leading to bankruptcy and the total closure of their activity./ CNA