Selling fruits and vegetables is the only form of income for many
people living in Abkhazia. Mandarin, oranges, lime and feykhoa are not
only bought within the republic, but also in other countries. But very
few people know how those fruits get to the market.
Resident of the Dranda village Artem has sprayed the trees both in the
spring and the summer many times in order to defend them from any harm.
This year there was much harvest from the mandarin trees. His neighbors
think that he should not spend that much money on expensive resources.
“We will just wash away the black traces on the fruits and the
mandarins will shine,” says Andrey.
The season for mandarin in Abkhazia starts from November 15. The
villagers bring their products to the market early in the morning where
the resellers buy the mandarin at a very low price (11-13 Russian
rubles). Other resellers take the mandarins to the “Psou” border
(located on the border between Abkhazia and Russia). At the border, the
mandarins are then sold to Russian resellers for 20-25 rubles. As for
the feykhoya, it is sold for 17-18 rubles.
In order to get to Sukhum, which is the Russian-Abkhazian border, you
can take a bus and get there for 80 rubles (50 rubles for the bus
ticket and 30 rubles for luggage). The cheapest form of transportation
was the electric train which costs 20 rubles, however it doesn’t work
at the present. The train goes from Sukhum to Moscow once every 4 days.
“It is nice to travel by train, but it departs late, like 4 o’clock in
the afternoon. We don’t benefit from that because we are not able to
sell the product and get home on time,” says one Ukrainian woman.
An Armenian man driving a “Volga” car filled with mandarins approaches
the border. All drivers are obligated to pay a “tax” to the officers
and the amount paid depends on the amount of products to be sold. A
veteran of the war of 1992-1993 told us his story. The young officer
pulled him over and demanded a certain amount of money. The veteran
shows his certificate which says “Hero of Abkhazia”. The officer says:
“You did not defend my home, so pay up just like everybody else.”
However, the veteran did state the fact that the young officers respect
him and let him pass.
I was going to the border by bus. The passengers in the bus were
discussing the announcement made by Tkachov, the state governor of
Krasnadar. According to that announcement, the state governor will
close the border if the Abkhazians do not make the “right choice”.
“They won’t close the border. Abkhazia feeds a lot of people,” said one
woman who was trying to calm everybody down in the bus.
One young girl from the village of Eshera whose name was Amra, was
taking some mandarin and feykhoa to sell at the market. She says that
one can earn a certain amount of money by selling the fruit, the only
thing is that you can have health problems. According to Amra, it was
better at the beginning of the season, but now they keep checking the
documents probably due to the elections going on. “If you don’t give
money, they will not let you pass. They let us pass easily here. It
just depends on who the officer is. Sometimes there are civilized
people, and yet there are others who are just rude.” Amra plans on
coming to the market on December 6 because that is when it is foreseen
to conduct the oath ceremony of Bagapsh. There are rumors going around
that the border will close after the ceremony.
Dmitri Tsargush, who has been working as Chief of Customs at “Psou”,
tells us his story: “The border has been functioning pretty well for
the past 2 years. Last year 24,000 tons of mandarin was exported,
people had jobs, they could pass the border any time if they had the
right documents. This was how it was during the 12 years after the
war.”
The first thing you see as you approach the border is a lot of cars.
Here you can hear a number of languages being spoken, including
Russian, Abkhazian, Ukrainian, and different Armenian dialects. There
are Armenians here from Hamshe, Javakhk, Baku and Gyumri.
“We came here to earn some money by loading cargo,” said the young men from Spitak.
With the order given by the workers of the border of the Russian
Federation, on the night of November 14 the “Adler-Road” border worked
a limited amount of hours. The reason for this is the danger of
terrorist acts taking place in Abkhazia.
At the present, the border is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Russian time.
Nobody knows how long it will continue like that. There is rumor going
around that the border might close completely, even though D. Tsargush
says that there is no discussion about that and there must be reasons
for that.
Before, people used to work at nights and cross the border. But
starting from November 22 there is a new law: all cars with Abkhazian
license plates must have insurance. The price for insurance for 15 days
is 1200-1500 rubles.
The Vice President of Abkhazia’s Customs Committee Nuri Ketian says
that the reason for the large accumulations of the border is that
“Russia used to transfer 50 kilograms of cargo without paying a customs
tax, but now you can transfer 250 kilograms only once every 10 days. If
someone wants to transfer 250 kilograms of cargo, then he has to
prepare documents.”
The official price of the Abkhazian side has not changed-1 ruble and 60
cents for 1 kilogram of mandarin, 1 ruble for 1 kilogram of dates.
The customs tax for one backpack in the cellar is 10 rubles. An old
Armenian woman was standing 5 meters away from the cellar. She said
that she could not carry the heavy backpack until the cellar or even
cross the border: “That is why I am standing here and selling lemon for
15 rubles.”
It started to rain, so I went into a cafe to drink some tea. Some women
approached me when they found out I was a journalist. One 50 year-old
Abkhazian woman was complaining:
“There was some meeting, so we have to cross the border with some
difficulties. They really made us suffer a lot. I really don’t care who
will be the next president. It doesn’t matter because I will still be
carrying this cargo. My child is home alone while I am here earning a
living.”
One stout man objected:
“We have no problems. Everything is fine and I have nothing to complain about. What are you talking about?”
“We all have problems. If it weren’t for those problems, what would we be doing here?” said another man.
There were many people at the border. The young officer at the border
said that the job is very nerve-wrecking but it is better than staying
at home. The on-duty officer said that recently they are not very
intimate with the Russian border officers.
“Before, it was not like that. I could pass the border freely. But now
all of a sudden I have to present a document.” One of the women that I
knew was standing on the bridge. She said that even though it was cold,
she was forced to work.
“We are earning some money to buy drugs. Yesterday some woman lost
consciousness and the border officers helped her out. Last year three
people died.”
I said good-bye to that woman and went in the opposite direction.
“They are unpredictable. The next thing you know they will close the
border. Then what will I do with all these products?” one old man was
telling someone. A 13 year old boy was carrying a heavy load. A woman
and her child could not pass the border. She only had 10 rubles and she
had to present a document for the bay leaves in her backpack.
“They want money from me, but I don’t have any,” she told me.
The customs chief let the others who had paid a certain amount of money pass the border, but that woman did not go anywhere.
Rosa Pilosyan had bought 180 kilograms of mandarins at the Abkhazian
side for 14 rubles. “I did not want to stay at the border. They could
have closed the border at 6 p.m., so I was forced to pay 150 rubles
just to pass.”
There is a long road from the border until the nearest market. A man
approached Rosa and said that he would buy the mandarin for 23 rubles.
Rosa agreed. The man did not like the fact that some of the mandarins
were green, so he began to bargain and lowered the price to 22. Rosa
did not agree to that and was even trying to find another customer. But
in the end the man convinced Rosa and bought the mandarins for 22
rubles a mandarin. Rosa now had 1,580 rubles for herself.
“If I had more time, I would go around and sell some more, but I would
not sell them at that price,” said Rosa in a sad tone. She added that
sometimes she has “lost”. Rosa is from Gyumri and she has been living
in Abkhazia since 1960. Her husband died in 1962 and her son has liver
problems. Rosa has no job, so she is forced to do trade.
It is hard to tell how the whole Abkhazian crisis will end. Will the
situation of the border get better? Will it get worse, or the opposite?
Nuri Ketya believes that the border needs to be open the whole day
because that will lessen the flow of merchants crossing the border.
Upon coming back from Abkhazia, a woman was standing next to her cart
of mandarins. I asked her where she was going to take the mandarins and
she replied:
“I am taking them to the north. One kilogram costs 60-70 rubles there.”