Stagnant prices

- by Anesta Henry May 23, 2023

Fruits, vegetables could become more costly as farmers lobby to increase prices

By Anesta Henry

Farmers have agreed on the need to establish a bargaining unit to lobby for increases in the prices of locally-grown fruits and vegetables, some of which have been stagnant for decades.
And when that becomes reality, consumers will have to pay more for farmers’ produce.
That’s according to Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) James Paul who told Barbados TODAY that in recent years, while farming inputs have increased by as much as 400 per cent, there has been no commensurate increase in the prices farmers get for their fruits and vegetables.
He said that situation, which is frustrating farmers who are hurting financially, was discussed at the Barbados Fruit and Vegetable Association seminar last Saturday.
Paul said farmers who attended the meeting agreed that a bargaining unit to advocate for an increase in the cost of fruits and vegetables should be established. However, he said, further discussions on the matter are to be held.
The BAS chief said his organisation was concerned that the prices of fruits and vegetables have remained the same for the past 30 years.
“This is something that has to be seriously addressed. How do we propose to address it? One of the things that we are trying to get farmers to do is to engage in more coordinated marketing. Certainly, even in terms of supplying to the supermarkets, one of the things that has been happening is that the supermarkets have been able to take advantage of farmers and the lack of unity among them,” he said.
“Instead of working together, a lot of farmers have gone on their own. In the past, the BAS actually supplied one of the suppliers but farmers bypassed that particular arrangement and went on their own. I think what has happened now is that their ability to negotiate better prices for the produce supplied to supermarkets has been severely compromised.”
Paul disclosed that BAS management was in discussions on what approach should be taken to encourage farmers to adopt a more united front for greater bargaining power.
He said it was clear that their incomes have been considerably reduced.
“If farmers are not able to make enough to cover the cost of planting produce, eventually they would go out of production and that is something that we generally cannot afford in this country,” the BAS head said.
According to him, the main reason farmers were barely breaking even was that prices of inputs continue to escalate while there were no increases in the cost of produce in the marketplace.
“The price of agricultural input, especially for crops and vegetable farming, started to increase in 2018 and 2019, and it has, of course, worsened. The war in Ukraine has exacerbated the circumstances, and it has made things worse. In terms of our purchasing power on the world market, we are relatively small buyers compared to larger buyers who are able to command better prices than we do,” he pointed out.
Added to that, Paul said, farmers were paying more for inputs like fertilisers, herbicides, and basic plant nutrients, impacting profitability.
“You have a situation where sweet potatoes are now retailing at around $6 per pound because there is a shortage. However, when it goes back to normal, sweet potatoes will probably drop back down to $2 per pound, a price which has been in existence for the last 30 years or so.
“And cucumbers can still today be sold for less than $1 per pound, and that has been going on, again, for the last 30 years. So, generally, the prices of these commodities have not increased over the years but at the same time inputs have gone up,” he stressed.
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