Stocks of beets, carrots, onions and potatoes in large vegetable-growing farms in Latvia are already practically exhausted, since due to floods, part of the crop has remained in the fields, and what has been collected cannot be stored for a long time.
Stores will soon face a shortage of vegetables and will have to import them, representatives of the Peasant Sejm told the Latvian Radio 4 program "Dome Square". According to the forecasts of Edita Strazdini, a member of the board of the "Peasant Seim" and the head of a cooperative of large vegetable farms called Mūsu māju dārzeņi, stocks of carrots, beets and onions will last for a week or two, potatoes - for two or three weeks.
Trade networks admit that the problem of deficit of Latvian vegetables exists. The representative of one of them told the radio station that the Latvian onion has already ended and is being imported from Lithuania. The carrots are about to run out. There is also a problem with apples and cranberries.
The most difficult situation is in Latgale, which last year suffered from floods more than other regions, somewhat better - in Zemgale. Small farms also confirm the problem with vegetables. Sellers at the Riga Central Market, who grow their own products and sell them themselves, call the situation of farmers unenviable. The only exception is cabbage, the harvest of which was fully harvested, since the quality of the product allows it to be stored for a long time.
Due to rains in the Baltic States and Finland, only 30-65% of grain, rapeseed and other crops were harvested in September, and the quality of the harvest was poor. There is much less winter crops planted throughout the region, meaning that next year the potential harvest will also be lower.
In early October, the Minister of Agriculture Janis Duklavs informed the EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan of the critical situation faced by many farmers after the August and September rains in Latgale, Vidzeme and Selija.
At the end of December, the European Commission decided to pay compensation to the Baltic states and Finland in the total amount of 15 million euros, of which 3,46 million euros will go to Latvian farmers whose farms have suffered from floods.
Source: http://www.fruit-inform.com