The government must do something about bread prices

30/10/2005 Anahit DANIELYAN

As stated by the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Karabagh Vahram Baghdasaryan, approximately 86,000 tons of grain has been reaped from the 62,653 hectare territory. This places Karabagh third in its history of having quantity. This quantity has been provided by the enlargement of territories. The mark for harvest this year was very low-13,8 cents and that is due to bad weather conditions. We found out from the Ministry that around 2106 ha of grain land had been destroyed by hail and 74,7 had been burned.

Recently, the price of wheat has gone down parallel to the brisk rise in prices for diesel. At the present, the average price of wheat is 70 dram in Karabagh. This has caused a major problem for villagers who still have not sold their produced grains and others have preferred not to reap due to the fact that the price for implementing work costs more than the amount received from sales.

Whereas approximately 62,653 hectares of land had been sowed in 2005, this year the villagers fear that they will not be able to use the grain lands for production. According to our data, only 15,000 hectares have been ploughed.

According to the Minister of Agriculture, the low price of wheat has to do with the import of wheat from Russia to Armenia at a low price. It has been two years that the state provides seed planters with seeds by aid on one condition: to return the same amount of wheat in the course of two years. Last year there was 700 tons of seed, as for this year; there are 800 tons of seed. The minister believes that this is a big help to the grain producers.

Specialists say that it is best to receive profit through other means when there is a drop in the price of wheat and a rise in diesel. It turns out that the ordinary villagers suffer from the changes in market prices. The villagers’ interests are taken into account by the authorities in most countries by creating a diesel reserve.

Bread producers get more profit from their work because the sudden drop in wheat prices has not affected bread prices. “Hayrenik” (Homeland) union reflected upon this during the October 19th session of the National Assembly of Karabagh. MP Romela Dadayan stated that the bread price has remained the same after the drop in wheat prices. “We think that the government should do something about the bread prices,” emphasized the deputy in her speech.