The high price of fruit in Tajik markets has worried some residents.
The price of one kilo of apples, which was five to six somoni last year, is now sold for almost double or more. Traders say that this year the harvest is not good and they buy the fruit from farmers at a high price. In the farms they said, on the contrary, traders and middlemen buy their goods cheaply.
“We gave two and a half somoni, but…”
Tajik horticulturist, Qurbanmurad Barotov, sells each kilo of apples in bulk to merchants at the price of two and a half somoni. Something that costs 10-15 somoni in the market.
“Honestly, we sell apples in bulk, big and small together, for two and a half somoni. Each kilo is fifteen somoni in the market. I saw this with my own eyes when I was in the city,” he said on November 2.
Various fruits, including apples, pears, peaches and cherries are grown in the “Kurbanmurad-2006” farm, about a kilometer from Dushanbe. Some of the farmers said that they sell the products of their labor on the ground, because it is not easy to take them to the city and trade in the market.
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This year, only the price of apples has not increased. In the markets of Dushanbe, a kilo of grapes costs 15 to 40 somoni, pears from 25 to 30, and dates 10 somoni. Officials of some markets claim that the price of fruit has not changed.
“The price of all domestic fruits has not changed. It is regulated by market experts so that traders do not raise the price artificially,” said Maston Sharifov, deputy manager of “Dehqan” market in Dushanbe.
What is the reason?
Traders say something else. Qurban Safarov, a fruit seller, said: “I confirm that due to the cold weather, many trees were damaged, they did not give a good harvest, so the price increased. The cost of fuel also increased.”
According to the market expert, Abdurrahman Hakimzoda, along with bad weather, there are other factors that affected the price of fruit. “The high cost of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, the export of some fruits abroad and the weak control of the Antimonopoly Service,” he listed.
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Officials of the Ministry of Agriculture of Tajikistan refused to comment on the topic. Our repeated calls by the time of publication of the report were unsuccessful.
On the website of the Ministry of Agriculture, they wrote that more than 430 thousand tons of fruits were collected by the end of October. More than last year, but more expensive than last year. So much so that, according to Abdusattor Sobirov, a resident of Dushanbe, “you are afraid to ask the price of fruit.”
Source : Радио Озоди