ZSA calls on students to include homemade products in their food packages

The head of the association, Juris Lazdiņš, said on the Latvian Television program "Morning Panorama" that the contents of food packages are currently very different.

"There are some that are well-packaged, some that are not so well-packaged, and some that are completely wrong, but we conceptually believe that Latvian raw materials and products from Latvian processors should be packaged."

Why? It's a pretty confusing situation – on the one hand, the government is taking out loans to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 in sectors, there are supports, subsidized jobs. On the other hand, by buying Polish, Russian, Estonian, Lithuanian products in these packages with state money, we are contributing to the stabilization of companies in these countries, we are contributing to the preservation of jobs in other countries,” said Lazdiņš.

He explained that Latvian farmers are capable of producing all the food products needed for domestic consumption. “We can provide as much as is needed in these packages. We believe that there should only be Latvian products in them.”

This has also been discussed at the Ministry of Agriculture. However, the content and packaging of food packages are the responsibility of local governments.

The Farmers' Association has discussed this issue with both the Latvian Association of Local Governments and individual municipalities. However, the talks so far have been unsuccessful.

Local governments' arguments are that there are regulatory requirements that force you to choose the cheapest offer. True, there are already good examples - some local governments have distributed "vouchers" that can be redeemed in stores.

Lazdiņš believes that regulations should be changed so that the lowest price is not the determining criterion for the delivery of food packages. “We will probably have no choice but to write and insist that the time has finally come, that we still need to value our local businesses, local people,” said the head of the association.

Source: www.lsm.lv