The ships are full, and ours is rotting in the fields

Potato producers from Miločani near Nikšić gathered yesterday to express their dissatisfaction with the import of potatoes and the inability to sell their own.

They ask that someone from the authorities receive them and explain to them why potatoes are imported when there are domestic ones and whether the relevant ministry will react to protect domestic producers.

"The current price of 20 cents is so low that we can't even provide basic costs from this kind of production. The problem is that large systems import huge quantities of potatoes," said Ratko Živković, the former Montenegrin record holder in potato production.

None of the producers, Živković points out, would have protested if their potatoes had been purchased and the missing quantities imported. In this way, domestic producers have plenty of potatoes, but they are still imported.

"Someone in the country should be concerned about why so much is being imported. The problem is not even the price, but the fact that they don't want to buy our goods. Someone needs to stand behind the agricultural producer. We know that there is a market for everything, but we do not know where we will go with the goods. This is certainly one of the worst years in terms of selling potatoes", believes Živković while showing a trailer loaded with potatoes that he doesn't know who he will sell to.

He is also convinced that the quality of domestic potatoes is much better than the imported ones, and he believes that imported goods should be better controlled.

"It is not good that we depend on imports. People must be given some greater incentive measures and the domestic producer must be protected in some way. It gave me five to seven tons per field, and that's a solid crop, but when income and expenses are added up, I'm in the red," said Živković.

His neighbor Božidar Milić believes that the state is the main culprit because it does not provide conditions to protect its producer.

According to their calculation, the production price of potatoes is 16 cents, and with a purchase price of 30 cents, they could have some sort of calculation.

"Ships full of potatoes, and our potatoes cannot be sold. We are taking the product out of the country and we don't know where to go with it," Milić protested.

Ranko Nikčević said that it regularly happens that he stays on the Tuska road for two or three days in order to sell 30 to 40 packages.

"Until these years, there were customers, but this year there are practically none. "I don't know if the reasons are big retail chains that closed the small ones so they can't survive, I can barely sell a 30-kilogram package for seven euros, mostly to buyers," said Nikčević.

Pavle Božović decided to wait to harvest the potatoes.

"I will take most of the potatoes out of the ground in April next year, when others will be planting potatoes, because I really don't know where I will go with them." I don't have a hangar to store it. There will also be a ton to give away, because it is not worth selling potatoes at this price. If they are already promoting agricultural production, why are they destroying it? I also have an aronia plantation, one of the largest and first in Montenegro, and the same is the case. Simply, there is no purchase, and everything is imported," said Božović.

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