The weather is an unstoppable enemy
Filled expectations of her cherry producers Pieria Winter for good production, until the frost and rain came to erase hopes.
From Rachi Pieria her journalist ERT Pavlos Saroglou, conveys the image of the trees of the trees.
Mr. Theodorou, a producer, shows the trees that would normally give 1.5-12 tonnes daily, and now have left with few fruits that do not exceed 100-150 kg. “It is unprofitable to enter the estates, because they will be looking for a branch to find one- two cherries.”
Dimitris Douros, president of the Rachi Agricultural Coisition, stresses that something must be done immediately, because the expenses have been reported that the Cooperative, the most up -to -date treatment in Europe, no longer has a product for sale.
“If in the past at such a time, prices were 2-3 euros per kilo now the few cherries will have more than twice the market price. Daily the cooperative was gathering around 25-30 tonnes cherry And now they find it difficult to reach 2- 2.5 tonnes. “
In addition to the very small production that will launch prices, cooperative members have a greater concern. The product, 80% exported to Europe and exports in third countries eg. In the Arab Emirates and India it is those that will be hit, and if some markets are closed, and buyers turn to other producers, returning to the Greek cherry will be difficult.
The compensation by ELGA, who is already recording the losses, will be a breath for farmers, but does not solve the issue, which seems to be deteriorating each year. The weather is an unparalleled enemy when it changes the centuries of data.
As long as every year the farmers will measure losses greater than any profit, at some point they will stop cultivation. Either techniques will be used to prevent glacier and quartz or some crops will be replaced with other more customized ones.
