“Fertilizers are up 50.60%, fuel has become much more expensive since the beginning of the year, and we sell vegetables at the same price as in other years, and it’s getting harder and harder,” he complains. Antonio Jose Simoins Lusa agency.
With a 40-50% reduction in acreage next year and the replacement of potato and cabbage production with cereals, this farmer is really thinking about stopping his activities in the medium term.
“If we stopped, we would still be stable, and if we continue like this, we will end up wasting everything and we will get worse,” he fears.
Difficulties are felt in horticultural centers too.
“If the prices of fuel, fertilizers, insecticides, labor, whatever is the material for packaging food, electricity continue to rise, I am concerned about this situation,” he told Luce João Pedro Fernández, manager of Simples & Frescas.
“We get little profitability. We cannot make a profit, and the 20 producers we do not get fair value and we cannot turn around, ”adds a businessman who is considering asking associate farmers to produce less next year. the trend of prices for the cost of production remains.
According to the estimates of the Interprofessional Horticultural Association of the West (AIHO), losses in this sector already exceed 20% and are on the upward trend.
“I fear that the production facilities will be abandoned or downsized because they have to generate income at the end of the month or year to be able to pay costs and make some profit, because that’s what people work for, but now we are not even we are talking about profit, we are talking about not losing money, ”emphasizes Sergio Ferreira, President of AIHO, in a conversation with Lusa.
According to the official, the energy crisis “has a very strong impact on the cost of factors of production” with “a huge increase in the amount of fertilizers by about 40-50%”, fuel and crop protection, which are growing every week. …
Contrary to what is happening, he argues that “this increase must be felt in the final product, otherwise the farmers will have to stop.”
In this sector, farmers start cutting back on food purchases at the start of another campaign, says the general secretary of Louricoop, an agricultural cooperative that is beginning to “shop according to needs” and is facing shortages. “Reserves” due to the closure of factories before the end of this year due to the energy crisis.
AIHO estimates the sector has a turnover of around € 500 million and employs 7,000 to 8,000 workers both on farms and in processing and transformation centers.
The western region includes the municipalities of Alcobasa, Bombarral, Caldas da Rainha, Nazare, Obidos and Peniche in the Leiria region, as well as the municipalities of Alenquere, Arruda dos Vinyus, Cadaval, Lorignan, Sobral de Monte Agrasu and Torres Vedras in this area. Lisbon.
