Sellers At Agricultural Fairs Tell Why Everything Risen In Price

The prices for fruits and vegetables have obviously grown heavier.

Agricultural fairs were held all weekend in the city. And before that, all month the whole Internet was buzzing with agricultural questions: why did they start bringing potatoes from Ukraine? Why have prices increased so much?

The journalists of Euroradio went to the fair to get answers to these questions. And, of course, to buy potatoes as well.

“Remember how cold May was?”

Whichever tent you approach, everywhere you will hear the same results of the year: the harvest this year is worse than it was last year, and therefore the prices are higher. The reason is the same: the weather.

- The weather has failed, - the tomato sellers admit. - At first it was a cold spring. Remember how cold May was? Then - cool June. And in July, the heat began, and there was no rain. August was cold. And such fluctuations led to the fact that the harvest was two times less.

They sell potatoes nearby. And they also complain about the weather. They say that just at the time when the potatoes were supposed to grow, a drought began.

Immediately one of the sellers tells the Euroradio correspondent that even a neighbor who has his own garden plot recently came to buy potatoes. There is a plot, but there is no harvest on it, so you have to buy at agricultural farms.

Last year, one could buy a kilogram of potatoes in bulk for 60-70 kapeykas. Now it costs 1.2 rubles.

- We had only two rains in the Brest region for the whole summer. But, thank God, the potatoes are good. Beets are a little worse. But everything is fine, we all have watering wells near the house, so when there is no rain, we water the plants.

- That is, the crop failure is not quite critical? Isn’t it possible that Belarusians remain without potatoes? Will we survive the winter?

Sellers laugh at the experiences of Minsk dwellers and tell them not to worry - we will survive. And if anything, let's switch to Ukrainian potatoes. It is brought here, to the agricultural market, in large wagons, the sellers say. Each truck contains 10 tons of Ukrainian potatoes. We will survive the winter.

The Stolin district phenomenon

While we are discussing potato prices, a buyer is looking for cabbage. She doesn’t find it, because cabbage can only be found in the morning, by lunchtime it’s already sold out.

- Why is there no cabbage? Too early?

- There was cabbage! Already sold.

- They ate everything! I look - and see no cabbage anywhere! I’ve slept too long!

- But you have to come in the morning!

Almost every seller the journalists talked to came to Minsk from the Stolin district. They explain to us: the population of the district is large, more than 70 thousand people live there, and there is especially nowhere to work.

- So everyone is engaged in growing cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage.

A year ago, the local canning factory Horynski, as local residents say, was bought by the Poles. Namely - a company with foreign capital registered in Stolin, Rasolnik LLC. They paid 9.3 million rubles for the plant.

- They said the plant is unprofitable. And we do not understand how the cannery can be unprofitable in the Stolin region - in our summer cucumbers are sold in bulk at 5 kapeyka per kilogram. We ship to both Moscow and St. Petersburg, on some days - up to a thousand tons. And they managed to bankrupt their cannery, - one of the sellers wonders. - Those who worked at this plant did not have salaries. And as soon as the Poles came, they immediately gave the people a salary.

Private traders also work in the area. At the fair we are told about the local private company “Polesie spices”. Among the spices there are pickings and Korean carrots.

- Both Minsk and Vitsebsk buy. Guys who work as drivers for a private trader earn a thousand rubles a month steadily. And those who work on collective farms receive a minimum wage.

In general, they explain to us, it is good to live in the Stolin region in good years. The harvest has grown - everything will be fine.

Apples, flowers and honey

In a sense, the agricultural market is an islet of Polesie in Minsk, and it corresponds to your best ideas about Polesie. That is, when you ask local sellers for a comment, you get both a comment and a Polesie apple as a gift.

15 such “islands” appear in Minsk over the weekend. You can buy not only the obvious tomatoes, potatoes, apples, but also flowers, honey, and confectionery.

Another seller agrees: this year's drought has added problems. But she closely monitors the weather forecasts and, if she hears that the tele barometer promises a dry summer, she is already preparing that she will need to somehow survive it, and arrange watering more often.

Some, however, still refuse to comment: they ask to get into the situation and understand that by the second day of the fair there is no longer any strength. Although the prices are higher than last year, for some reason people do not complain about them, and buy everything that the sellers brought.

- I come to the fair every year, and I want to say that this year is the best fair. People take everything well. Especially potatoes, as we know, they are the second bread. People also willingly buy meat products, especially fat. I can’t say they complain about the prices or anything either.

How much is the food

Here are the approximate prices for the products that can be bought at metropolitan fairs:

a kilogram of potatoes - 1.2 rubles,

a kilogram of cabbage - 1-1.2 rubles,

a kilogram of apples - 2-3.5 rubles,

a kilogram of tomatoes - 1–4.5 rubles,

a kilogram of cucumbers - 2-3.5 rubles,

a kilogram of eggplants - 1-2 rubles.