How much are Romanian tomatoes sold at the gates of tanning salons and how much do they end up costing in the markets, a week before Easter
The few tomato producers in Olt county who have already started harvesting and delivering to the markets since March sell tomatoes wholesale at prices of 40-42 lei per kilogram.
The president of the Olt Agricultural Producers' Union, Ion Păunel, explained that the price reflects both the high costs, especially those with heating the solariums, as well as the reduced production and high demand during this period, according to Agerpres.
Păunel indicated that, on the one hand, the prices of fuel for heating solariums in the cold period, as well as of fertilizers and fertilizers, have increased.
“We had a winter with few sunny days, with a lot of fog, with low temperatures. However, the most prepared, and we count them on our fingers, have been harvesting since March,” said the leader of the producers' organization.
Păunel mentioned that so far a small amount of tomatoes have been harvested from the solariums of Romanian producers, and in the next week, although the amount of tomatoes produced in the country on the market will increase, there will also be a very high demand, considering the Easter period, his estimates being that the current price of Romanian tomatoes will be maintained.
“Those who take out the first ones had the highest costs and then they have to cover the expense in one way or another. The demand for Romanian tomatoes in this period is higher than the supply. This year, like last year, the starting price was somewhere from 45 lei to the producer and I think it went with 52-53 lei from the wholesaler to the reseller. The reseller, in turn, I think he had somewhere around 60 lei per per kilogram and in the market the price was 69.99 lei, even in some markets, depending on the potential of the neighborhood, it was even 80 lei per kilogram. In the week before Easter, even if the harvested quantity will increase, because the demand may be much higher than now, it is possible that we will not notice a price reduction at the stall”, Păunel explained.
Ion Păunel, who is a vegetable grower, admitted that the price of Romanian extra-early tomatoes, the ones that are now being harvested from solariums, could be among the highest of tomatoes in Europe, but he pointed out that the Romanian vegetable growers' tomatoes are the tastiest, of two varieties famous for taste rather than quantity.
“But there is a condition for us to sell at this price. The farmer must have grown the two Bulgarian varieties, Paris and Prekos, only these tomatoes can get this price. They are the earliest, the extra-early ones on the market, they resist the best in these cloudy periods and they are unmistakable in taste,” he explained.
Photo source: Dreamstime.com
