The Minister of Agriculture will visit members of the Farmers' Parliament in Latgale

On Thursday, May 15, the Minister of Agriculture in Latgale will meet with the management of the association "Zemnieku saeima" and visit the farm SIA "Latgales zērķi loģistika", which is engaged in growing vegetables in covered areas. During the meeting, it is planned to discuss how the Ministry of Agriculture can improve cooperation between producers and retail chains in promoting the sale of local products.

Juris Lazdins, Chairman of the Association "Farmers' Council": "The local fruit and vegetable season has begun, but we still mostly see imported products in stores. Ministries can influence the proportion between imported and local products in stores. We would like to discuss ideas on how to increase the proportion of local products in retail chains operating in Latvia and in state procurement."

Minister of Agriculture Jānis Dūklavs: "Vegetable growing is an important sector of Latvian agriculture, therefore, in the Rural Development Programme for 2014-2020, we have planned a series of support measures, the financial resources of which will also be available to vegetable growers – both large farms and small and medium-sized ones – for the development and modernization of production. I am pleased that in the previous planning period, many Latvian vegetable growers successfully invested European Union support funding in the modernization of their farms. Every farm that produces agricultural products is important to us, thus ensuring the management of agricultural land and employment in rural areas."

Edgars Romanovskis, member of the board of SIA “Latgales zērēju loģistika”: "Working in the horticulture sector, we are increasingly faced with problematic issues that we want to raise during the meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and seek a joint solution. The most pressing issue is support for the modernization of agricultural enterprises, because only by developing technologies and streamlining production can we compete with Dutch and Spanish vegetables. It should be noted that vegetable cultivation in covered areas in Latvia and other EU member states does not receive any kind of support in the form of direct payments, thus it is an agricultural sector that actually operates under free market conditions. However, the current import bunch tomatoes sold in stores for 1.15 euros per kilogram clearly show that growers are indirectly supported in other European member states. Thus, a large number of buyers cannot currently afford healthy and high-quality Latvian vegetables, which are grown mainly using only organic plant protection products."

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SIA “Latgales zārēju loģistika” opened the greenhouse complex “Mežvidi” on March 1, 2013. The farm manages 0.5 ha of covered area, 25 employees are employed to ensure the operation of the complex. Currently, intensive work is being done to expand the territory of the complex to up to 2 ha in the coming years, offering buyers healthy and high-quality vegetables grown in Latvia. The company is a member of the association “Zemnieku saeima”.