Monopolies have destroyed agriculture

Killing competition is a bigger enemy than climate change and eviction, redemption prices are dictated by power centers with no pity for the lives of their fellow citizens, but no one is held accountable.

Two or three days before the "craziest night", the Government, through its competent authority, announced that the farmers were being paid their subsidies and that their arrears had been fully paid. The "authority" boasted that this was a historic sum and that this was restoring the farmers' trust in the state. That is nice and pleasant to hear, but prices are rising, are they rising! How is that possible? Well, that is only possible here.
Every government at first rushes in with the praise that it is helping agriculture, but it only sinks year after year. In 10 years – one third of farmers have left this branch, that is, they have freed up space for the import of more expensive foreign products. In 2014, there were 90 thousand registered farmers, and currently there are barely 65 thousand. The number of cattle breeders has also been halved, so from 260 thousand heads 10 years ago, now we have barely 140 thousand.
None of the official bodies has ever precisely named the problem of high prices on the market and has not said whether anything is being done to solve it, but only some non-market, administrative restrictions are being introduced. So, no one knows that our fields are being "plowed" by Macedonian Janissaries, or, in modern style - the "green" or agricultural mafia. This is always kept quiet in the hope that "the Americans will not find out about us"! Not a single Janissary has been charged and convicted for the crime committed - the murder of agriculture and the reduction of production! And not a single one has been put on the "black list"!
Where are the subsidies? They started to be given around 2008 and then a great effect was achieved. The number of farmers began to increase significantly, some even progressed from amateur farmers to professionals and began to live off of it. But the hyenas smelled the "soup" and went hunting, or were sent by someone! First, they united in monopolies despite the "living" Law on Protection of Competition, the so-called "antimonopoly law". Small buyers were eliminated with money or force. The processing industry was halved. The money for the subsidies began to be calculated for the farmers in the price of the product, convincing them that they were receiving subsidies and that they would get the same. For example, the buyers of peppers say: "We give you 11 denars, you will take another two denars from the state and here is the price for you - 13 denars." Previously, during the regular purchase, peppers were purchased for 13 denars.
During the Covid crisis, the price of bread went up to 60 denars, while wheat was purchased for 10 denars, and under public pressure it dropped to around 30 denars, so it was possible to live at that price, everything else was extra profit.
Next example – why is there no export of live lamb? The farmers are forced to sell the lamb to a buyer-slaughterhouse at a price that he is willing to pay them, etc. We can wait until morning.
There are known examples when domestically trained "controllers" have stopped the purchase of peaches, watermelons, grapes, potatoes, for buyers from neighboring countries, who have offered a satisfactory purchase price. But the keen sense of smell for money motivates the hyenas to take over that purchase with only one price! There is no other higher, competitive one, for buyers to compete to see who will buy the lamb! What kind of market is that in which buyers all agree among themselves to offer the same low price in order to make as much profit as possible in the further course of the chain in trade and in marketing. Thus, the money from subsidies flows into the pockets of those who control the purchase. As for the racketeering of those few farmers who have sprung from the fields - ask them, they will tell you, if they dare! The authorities are passing this scheme on to each other like a baton, despite the "big" political struggle. This means that the struggle is not for saving the country, but for the people's money from the budget.
That is why the subsidies did not produce results. Those that did, they suffocated with their inconsistency. Catastrophic statistics await us. The indicators will be good only for those producers who do not depend on buyers, have their own shops or stalls in the markets, and these are a small number, do not produce large quantities and their product cannot influence the reduction of prices.
Thus, for many years, agriculture and livestock farming have been systematically discouraged, leading to unprofitability and producers giving up. Before giving up, in a sign of revolt and powerlessness, they dump their grapes and watermelons on the roads, or in front of the buyers' gates.
Of course, the agricultural mafia does not act on its own. It must have and does have support "from above". That is why the fight against it has been absent. Who has heard that someone is in custody for the aforementioned malfeasance. State authorities deal with crime of a different kind, no one has ever mentioned that an investigation has been conducted into the schemes of agricultural underground canals and tunnels. Let the state check whether there are owners of agricultural companies in its ranks for purchase or trade or on behalf of their close relatives.
In Macedonia, 12-13% of the population is engaged in agriculture. Our production is far lower compared to the European average. In Europe, 6-7% of the population is engaged in agricultural production, but it produces 3-4 times more than our 13%. Where is the science? There, the state stimulates and helps production in a real way, because it knows that otherwise it will face all the phenomena that countries like ours face: imports and high prices – inflation – devaluation of money – impoverishment – ​​emigration – reduction in the productivity of all companies…
Encroaching on the food of one's own people should be a crime of the highest rank, like genocide. If there were real competition in the purchase of agricultural products, farmers would have a return on their work, and subsidies would not even have to be given, but would remain in the budget for some other purpose, of course if it were freed from the shackles of corruption.
The grass will grow every year, whether livestock will graze it or we will start grazing it ourselves, depends on how quickly the mafia in agriculture will be destroyed and all incentive measures will be implemented in this basic branch of life.
Therefore, at the next press conference, it would be time to come up with such data, who is the head of the monopoly in the buyout, or will we wait for Angela to walk through the field and tell us that?!

(The author is a journalist)

THE LANGUAGE IN WHICH THEY ARE WRITTEN, AS WELL AS THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THE COLUMNS, DO NOT ALWAYS REFLECT THE EDITORIAL POLICY OF "FREE PRESS"

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