SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region— Kurdish farmers have pinned their hope on the center and south of Iraq to buy their products because of low prices domestically and the fact that their supplies exceed local demand.
As two major producers of vegetables and fruit the two cities of Halabja and Sulaimani are specifically affected by this.
“Domestic products are plenty and so now we depend on the south and center of Iraq,” says Sarwar Ali, head of Sulaimani wholesale syndicate.
Ali says local purchasing power is weak.
“The prices are very low here,” he told Rudaw. “Because of the financial crisis our market is zero.”
Ali suggests that the government should find ways to “export it to the outside, particularly cucumber and watermelon.”
“If they had done it, the prices would probably not have dropped like this.” Ali thought.
At such low prices, farmers say, the end result isn’t worth the hard work and investment going into farming.
“The product is worth nothing,” said Haji Karim, a farmer. “This price is so low; it can’t even cover the expenses I have spent on producing the cucumber.”
“The Government should think about it,” Karim warned. “If it continues like this, it will be a big loss for all of us, and after Eid we will abandon the products.”
As a first small step farmers have sold to the center and south of Iraq close to 400 tons of cucumber, watermelons and melons on a daily basis this summer, carried by 50 trucks.
Mahir Omar, a trader who also owns and drives his own truck has seized the opportunity and made a business for himself by buying low in the Kurdistan Region and selling high in the rest of Iraq.
“I transport two or three containers to Bagdad weekly,” said Omar. “It gets sold so fast. Because we buy it with a low price here, at 100 IQD. We sell it there with 200-250 IQD.”
Omar says his entire shipment is sold before the end of the day.
“Each container I transfer is no less than 15 tons and all sold from early morning until evening, nothing is left,” he said.
