Farmers Riot: Belarusians Throw Cabbage Right On The Road

Stores were selling imported cabbage at that time.

A recent video from the Web shows Alshany farmers throwing good white cabbage out of their cars onto the road. Then it will be used to feed livestock. The state buys it for only 5 kopecks per kilogram.

Some do not harvest cabbage at all, because it is unprofitable. Meanwhile, Euroradio found foreign cabbage in retail chains for 1.07-1.17 rubles.

The journalists found out what was going on from the farmers.

"It's easier to plough the field. Many did so"

One of the Alshany farmers says that there is an excess of cabbage on the market because the farmers are just harvesting. Therefore, the price for it on the purchasing market is only 20-30 kopecks per kilogram.

— We have too much of it, it does not sell well. 20-30 kopecks is only to return the costs. And that is not always. 5 kopeks is a net loss. Then it makes no sense to harvest it, it's easier to let the tractor in and plough the field without harvesting. Many of us did it with early cabbage.

It is necessary for the price to be at least 50 kopecks, as it was a month ago, to recover the costs and earn some money. Then it worked more or less normally.

At the same time, prices in stores are several times higher than purchase prices, and cabbage is not always Belarusian. For example, the Santa store chain in Minsk offers Russian cabbage at 1.17 rubles per kilogram, and Euroopt offers Kazakh cabbage at 1.07 rubles. There is also Belarusian cabbage in the E-delivery at 1.1 rubles. Why does cabbage come to Belarus from Kazakhstan, when there is an excess of it, they could not tell on the Euroopt helpline?

We found Belarusian cabbage in Sosedi at 0.91 rubles per kilogram. Belmarket sells young cabbage at 0.75 rubles, and Green at 1.42 rubles.

— There may be a lot of reselling. Cabbage is not immediately brought to a store, but after two or three people, and each one inflates the price, according to the source.

Another producer from Alshany notes that he knows about the problem with the sale of cabbage, but he did not encounter it personally.

— That’s right. Shops overcharge, but here no one buys it. That is why it is easier for people to hand over cabbage to collective farms. We do not have cabbage now, because we have late varieties. These varieties will ripen later.

"Farmers have always found it harder to work with sales networks"

The Alshany Rural Executive Committee says that it also wondered why such prices are formed.

— This issue is under our control. The committee said that they are considering the ways and terms for their sales networks.

Price problems are not new for farmers, according to the Alshany official. After all, much depends on the harvests in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. If the harvests are good, then imports come from these countries and it is more difficult for Belarusians to trade at home when the harvest season is also ongoing. And it is difficult for local producers to agree in advance with sales networks or processing enterprises.

— Processing companies have contacted us. They want to make individual contracts in spring. They also want to set a fixed price and supply volumes in the contracts. You know, it is hard to predict the volumes of vegetables. People will fulfil the contracts and everything will be fine, at best. But the weather conditions are different, somewhere something could grow differently. In this case, debts may arise in connection with the failure to fulfil obligations under the contracts.

Sales networks, as far as we know, are purchased through some enterprises. However, farmers have always found it harder to work with sales networks. Sales networks demand a specific quality level. I don’t mean that someone’s products are rotten and they don’t want to buy them, but the requirements are up to the size. Like, if the cabbage is small, no one will buy it.