Skopje, 6 April 2023 (MIA) - The price freeze will not affect the costs and income of farmers, but all those who want to profit at the expense of citizens, said Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy, Ljupcho Nikolovski. 

According to him, the Ministry's analyses clearly define the production costs of the farmers, as well as the purchase price paid to them.

"The analyses show that most of the prices that citizens pay go to the margin, not to the farmers. We currently don't have the domestic production, and therefore our general opinion was that at this point there is no problem in the part of the domestic production of those products, i.e. the price freeze and limit will not affect the costs and the income of farmers, but will affect all those who want to profit at the expense of citizens. In the overall price, the margin has the largest representation," said Nikolovski. 

A meeting was held on Wednesday at the Agriculture Ministry with farmers in the greenhouse farming, said the Minister adding that ther demands will be looked into in order to see what the costs are. 

"This is greenhouse production, where the cost of production is higher, but the Ministry was ready to support farmers in every way last year too. We will analyze this data. I know that today the Prime Minister has a meeting with several ministers about the price freeze and I believe that there will be more data," said Nikolovski. 

He pointed out that import price is not being analyzed, but domestic production. 

"It is not within our competence to examine and set the cost of products from Albania or Serbia. It is not within the competence of the Agriculture Ministry. I can only give answers with facts and arguments and I do so daily. We have to protect farmers because with margins placed on domestic products no one can ultimately profit in times of crisis," Nikolovski said. 

He added that the Agriculture Ministry has a system that includes a thousand farms, regarding which the prices of the production of agricultural products are monitored daily. -"We have calculated, i.e. systematically extracted the data that tell how much it costs farmers to produce the corresponding products in terms of fruit and vegetables," said Nikolovski. 

By a decision of the government as of Wednesday the retail price of tomatoes has been capped at 70 denars per kilogram; cucumbers at Mden 75 per kg; onions at Mden 60 per kg; cauliflower at Mden 70 per kg; green peppers at Mden 90 per kg; beans at Mden 75 per kg; lentils at Mden 110 per kg; bananas at Mden 70 per kg; oranges at Mden 55 per kg; tangerines at Mden 60 per kg; and lemons at Mden 55 per kg.