GENÇAĞA KARAFAZLI
(RIZE) MHP Rize Center District Chairman Seçkin Memişoğlu stated that last year’s tea price caused disappointment and said that the price to be determined this year should be at least 35 lira. Memişoğlu said, “Economy, living conditions today, tea needs to be at a point in the 35 lira range in order for the farmer to survive.”
RizeThe other day, the Presidents of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Black Sea provinces came together before the price of fresh tea to be announced by the government, just days before the 2024 fresh tea campaign. Rize Chamber of Agriculture President Bünyamin Arslan said, “We demand that the base price of fresh tea be 25 TL so that our producers can be saturated in the place where they are born, in order to prevent the economic conditions and sustainable migration of agriculture in the region.” MHP Rize Central District Mayor Seçkin Memişoğlu said that the price should be at least 35 lira, considering inflation.
“TEA IS GOING TO A POINT WHERE IT CANNOT BE PRODUCED”
Seçkin Memişoğlu said:
“We are about to approach the tea season, which is the main source of income for Rize and our people. When we look at last year, we saw that with the tea price announced at the inflation rate, at the beginning of August, when our tea producers received their first payment, it was half melted before it even entered their pocket. The private sector made purchases above the base price due to the inflation. This, to some extent, saved our tea producers from suffering. As time passed, the tea price announced at the inflation rate or at rates close to the inflation rate made the tea producers more and more disadvantaged. He does not enter his lands and cannot earn an income from tea. For this reason, he resorts to renting the tea lands in Rize with a model that we call the splitter model, which is almost free. However, he cannot find producers to rent his lands in Rize, and when he cannot find it, it is a sin not to let him stay in the field. It is not like agricultural products, it cannot be harvested when it is not planted, it is not without problems. If you do not collect this tea for a while, it will become a forest, it must be collected. Since tea is not purchased at its value due to necessity, the quality of tea decreases day by day and causes the tea to come to the point of running out. Rize, in particular, needs serious restructuring for tea, which is a strategic product for our country in general. In this case, it can be done by giving the tea its true value. When real value is given, tea producers need to be able to make a serious profit from tea in order to move towards the agriculture that our ancestors, fathers and grandfathers did in the periods when we passed from tea. Today, tea producers have quit farming because they cannot earn income from tea. The quality of tea has deteriorated and it is heading towards a point where tea cannot be sold or produced. For this reason, the price study should be at a point that can sustain farmers and tea agriculture, rather than inflation.
“REAL SUPPORT IS NEEDED”
Last year’s tea price should not be taken as a basis because before the tea price was announced last year, a price of 15 lira was expected. Although this price was low, according to the whole society, it was acceptable. It was set at 11 lira last year and it was half melted before it even entered your pocket. This year, we need to determine our calculations and expectations according to the 15 lira plus inflation after it enters our pocket, not according to today’s base price. When we look at this, today’s economy, today’s living conditions, tea needs to be somewhere in the 35 lira range in order for the farmer to survive. While the base price is 35 lira, there is also a support payment for tea. So today, when we buy a ton of fertilizer, we pay 16 thousand lira for fertilizer and the prices are very high. Support is stuck at 30 cents, this is a ridiculous figure in today’s conditions. It is not enough for our citizens to go to the bank and get that money, they spend that money on the road anyway. “In order for the 35 lira to evolve into support in the 13-14 percent band, it needs to be withdrawn to the 5 lira band so that our citizens can be truly supported at this point, so that they can buy their fertilizer, buy their diesel fuel, start farming, and tea can be passed on to the next generations.”
