Tomatoes left unpicked in Soran as Penjwen growers block road over prices

SULAYMANIYAH — Farmers in Penjwen blocked the road outside the district’s wholesale market on Tuesday as tomato prices fell 40% in a week, while growers in Soran have left crops unpicked for nearly five days rather than sell at current rates.

Locally grown tomatoes fell below 450 dinars a kilo, about 28 cents, from around 750 a week earlier. Growers said they would accept 500. Bakhtiar Qadir of the Penjwen Farmers Council said farmers had been told to bring nothing to market on Wednesday in protest, and growers called for the wholesale market to close over agricultural imports coming in through the Parwez Khan crossing with Iran.

The arithmetic has turned against them. A 1.5-tonne pickup load sells for 630,000 dinars, about $400, while picking it and getting it to market costs up to 420,000, two thirds of the sale price, leaving around 210,000 dinars for the crop. That is 420 dinars a kilo against the 750 investors paid when they bought unharvested fields earlier in the season, some putting up 30 million dinars, roughly $19,600, for a 500-square-metre plot.

Growers blocked the Garmik-Penjwen road last week over tomatoes imported from Iran. District mayor Adnan Kaka-Rash said then that he would take the matter up with border authorities. Farmers say the imports have continued.

The problem runs across the Region. In Soran, in Erbil governorate, many growers have left tomatoes on the plants for nearly five days, saying selling at these prices would not be worth the picking. Costs begin at planting and run through fertiliser, daily labour and transport to market. Thousands of families in the Region depend on tomato growing and sales.