Farmers are ready to provide Latvian residents with local vegetables

As the COVID-19 crisis in the country intensifies, the association "Farmers' Council" (ZSA) calls on the Ministry of Agriculture to intervene and support the creation of cooperation agreements between food retail chains and local farmers for the supply of fruits and vegetables.

ZSA Board Chairman Juris Lazdiņš: “The further development of the situation in Europe and the world is difficult to predict. As farmers, we are aware of our primary task of providing Latvian society with the necessary basic food products. Therefore, one of the current proposals of the ZSA association is for store chains, as well as individual stores, to conclude contracts with Latvian farmers for the supply of the new vegetable and fruit harvest to ensure regular production on store shelves.”

The farms have already expressed their desire to start such mutually beneficial cooperation and conclude a long-term cooperation agreement for specific volumes and prices of vegetables. If necessary, the farms are ready to increase the areas of specific crops, such as potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets and other vegetables, so that supermarkets and Latvian residents can be provided with high-quality and healthy local produce during the summer and autumn period.

Dagnija Hincenberga, z/s “Lazdiņi”, Ozolnieki municipality: “Since there is still a month until the potato planting, we can increase the production volume twice. From a cultivation point of view, there are no problems. The only thing that prevents us from doing so is the lack of a clear market. Our farm has many years of experience in growing potatoes. In recent years, we have only grown about 1/3 of what we grew 10 years ago.”

Currently, it can be observed that in crisis situations, each country feeds itself first. Our milk and grain processors also provide the local market with products first. Unfortunately, such long-term cooperation is lacking in the vegetable sector, which is why we export a large part of our production in the autumn period and import it from southern countries in the spring period, where vegetable storage costs are lower. However, the products that come to us are mostly not first-class. Therefore, such an initiative would ensure both food safety and its availability. As studies show, buyers in supermarkets are happy to choose local fruits and vegetables, but store chains are not always able to ensure their availability.

Although such cooperation is currently planned only until the end of the crisis, it would serve as an initiative for successful long-term cooperation in the sale of local products in the future.