The state should have limited the sale of potatoes, the expert believes.
Potatoes have risen in price due to rising prices for diesel fuel, fertilizers and planting material. The former Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Armenia Ashot Harutyunyan said this in an interview with Sputnik Armenia.
According to him, since last autumn it has become clear that the price of potatoes will rise. However, instead of taking measures to level the consequences of the crisis, the state also imposed restrictions on potato farmers in the spring, which further aggravated the situation.
“The state should have limited the sale of potatoes, and not forbid farmers to sell them. They should have developed an appropriate program that would help increase sown areas and yields, but they did exactly the opposite,” Harutyunyan noted.
Now there is a demand on the market, but there is no supply, that is, there is a shortage of potatoes in the republic, which also affects prices. It was expected that young potatoes will solve this problem, but there are also problems here, the expert notes.
“The sown area of young potatoes has decreased, respectively, here the cost is already high. In addition, potato seeds are expensive. If earlier they cost 200-250 drams, today they cost 350-400, and 60-70% of the cost of potatoes falls on specifically for planting material,” the ex-deputy minister explained.
Also, the export of potatoes is carried out at high prices, which also contributes to a rise in prices in the domestic market. According to Harutyunyan, there is no agreement on this issue at the state level, businessmen from Russia privately come to Armenia and buy potatoes from farmers at high prices.
“Over the years, the potato market has been mainly regulated, since exports were usually limited, and there were practically no imports. Then the crisis situations were quickly resolved,” Harutyunyan said.
Today, in order to make up for the shortage of potatoes in the republic, according to Harutyunyan, potatoes are imported from Iran, Egypt and even Turkey. And even if potatoes continue to rise in price, this means that in the future a significant decline in prices is unlikely.
“If a local crop appears, this will lower prices by several percent, but prices cannot fall very much, since the cost of potatoes and agricultural products in general will be high this year,” Harutyunyan added.
It should be noted that the price of potatoes has risen sharply in the Armenian market, reaching 500-600 drams per 1 kg. In social networks, users express dissatisfaction with the price increase.
It should be reminded that back in February of this year, 1 kg of potatoes cost 250 drams and it was already twice as expensive as compared to last year. In addition to potatoes, prices for other vegetable and gourd crops also increase in Armenia.
