The viability of farms is still being tested

The final touches are being made and the 2014 agricultural season will be over. Looking back on the last few months, it feels like this has been a tough year for farmers. Farmers from all over Latvia share their opinions on what is currently happening in agriculture and what to expect.

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Mareks Bērziņš, owner of the farm "Lojas" from Mazsalaca municipality: "I grow grain and raise beef cattle on my farm. In the beef cattle sector, purchase prices have always been stably low and have not changed at the moment. The opposite is true in the grain market, where The price drop for rapeseed and cereals compared to the previous year is at least 30%. Overall, this was a testing year for grain growers, which began with losses caused by frost, difficult threshing conditions and autumn sowing hampered by precipitation. The negative impact of the year will be felt for several more years."All the work on the farm has been done and, looking at Vidzeme as a whole, a passive peace has set in, a waiting position and people are starting to calculate how much each has lost this year, the mood is not optimistic. Police patrols are still controlling African swine fever on our side, and, fortunately, it is not escalating."

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Juris Cīrulis, owner of the farm “Mežacīruļi” from Jelgava region: "There is currently a milk crisis in Latvia. The good news is that the crisis is not eternal, but the bad news is that we do not know when it will end. Milk purchase prices range from 0.15 euros to 0.255 euros per kilogram of milk, but prices in stores are still inadequately high. At the same time, there are dairy plants in Latvia that are already withholding a fine of 50% from producers who have exceeded their milk quotas. This is not legal, because The amount of the national milk quota overrun will be known only on August 1, 2015, which will be calculated by the Agricultural Data Center. The fine will have to be paid by November 30, 2015, and it is currently unknown whether Latvia will exceed the milk quota and by how much. Currently, dairy farms are Consolidating spending and implementing massive austerity to survive the resulting crisis."

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Edīte Strazdiņa, owner of the farm "Galiņi" from Ogre region: "Currently, some of the carrots, cabbage, beets, celery, and other vegetables are still in the field, because due to the incessant rains, it was not possible to harvest the crops from the fields. If we talk about vegetable prices, they are currently still below cost for several vegetable crops and continue to fall. As for the food embargo imposed by the Russian Federation, Latvia will be compensated for 3,000 tons of vegetables and the first applications for compensation have already been submitted to the Rural Support Service. The first inspections have also been carried out on farms."

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Juris Lazdiņš, owner of the farm "Lazdiņi" and chairman of the association "Zemnieku saeima": "The food embargo imposed by the Russian Federation at the beginning of August has more or less affected all agricultural sectors. Currently, our task is to preserve as many farms as possible, therefore state support is particularly important. We hope that the government's promises will be fulfilled and farmers will receive the promised transitional state support, which will at least partially ensure the viability of farms. It is also necessary to be aware that the cultivated areas increase every year, the agricultural production increases, and farmers need all the promised liters of excise-free diesel fuel."