Farmers facing tough times in Estonia

  • 2010-11-03
  • By Ella Karapetyan

LOCAL CATCH: Both producers and consumers benefit in the fresh foods markets by cutting out the middleman.

TALLINN - People who love the natural taste of Estonian food products shop at Rotermanni City Square, which accommodates a small farmers’ market, offering Estonian food products only. Farmers and small enterprises offer a variety of vegetables, strawberries, sausages, ham, mutton, cheeses, smoked fish, hand-made home-baked black bread and different small pies.

The main idea of the freshly opened market is to offer farmers an opportunity to sell and to give townspeople a chance to get real domestic farm food which they cannot buy from supermarkets. One of the farmers from Rotermanni, who asked not to be named, said that this year seems better than the previous one. “Because of  the economic recession, we could not make a good profit last year but this year seems to be better,” says the farmer.

“People have started to spend more money on food, especially on vegetables during this season. My business is selling products, mainly what I plant and grow and bring here to sell. I can’t say that my business is doing quite well but it goes smoothly and it gives better results than if compared with last year’s profits. I hope that Estonia is recovering from the economic crisis and maybe in the near future people will start to spend more money on food. Our market is one of the most popular markets in Tallinn, maybe this is one of the reasons why I see my business growing. We offer the best farm products here, the freshest fruits and vegetables, fish and so on,” he added.

The farmer added that he did not lose many clients due to the economic crisis. “I can’t say that I have lost many clients. I have customers  who buy food only from me, as they trust me. I think it is important for the customers to know that they are not cheated and that they get only the freshest food at an affordable price,” he explained.
According to Igor Ivanov who has a small farm, the situation is quite tough. “I have my small farm where I grow vegetables and bring them to Tallinn to sell; I need to spend money on transport and the customers are not shopping very actively this year, so most of the products are spoiled and I have no choice but to throw them away,” Ivanov said to The Baltic Times.

“Sometimes I put really low prices in order to sell them, and in this case I see that people are interested in buying, they are searching only for cheap food. I have noticed that they do not want to buy something that is fresh or tasty, just what is cheap. They first ask for the price, then start thinking if they want to buy it or not,” he said.

“As for me, the situation is extremely difficult for farmers in Estonia. I do not see any support from the state, that’s to say enough support. My business does not bring any good profit any more but unfortunately I do not see me going to any other sector. I have a big family and I still need to earn enough money to support them, which is really hard for a farmer.”
Ivanov said that he cannot see a bright future for farmers in Estonia. “In my opinion, the future seems very tough for farmers. I work at an open air small food market in the suburbs where people are not rich and where generally Russian speaking people live, who are facing serious economic hardships. I have started thinking of changing my workplace; I hope maybe some markets in the city center will bring me more profit and customers,” he noted.

He added that there is big competition between farmers in Estonia, selling the same kind of products in the markets. “I try to put down affordable prices but my competitors sometimes charge even less, which makes my business suffer. Last year I hired a woman who was to sell my products at the market, as my job was only to grow them, but now I fired her as I do not have extra money to pay her. I sell my products on my own at the market.”

He also said that “If we take farmers selling their products at Rotermanni food market, for example, there is no doubt that business is doing well because the market has already become popular, no matter that it is still a freshly opened market. I do not think that the vegetables they grow and sell are of better quality than mine; I think the name of the market plays a big role.”

Statistics have shown that Estonian grain farmers have more or less sold their crops in 2010 and there is no surplus. “The general situation is that that there isn’t a lot of grain available in Estonia,” said Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce manager Roomet Sormus. “More or less all of the grain [that was received from fields this year] has been sold.”

Sormus said that a lot of the grain was sold with advance contracts before it was harvested. This has caused problems this year since crops were smaller than expected and thus some producers cannot even fulfill their advance contracts. “Physically the amount that was sold in an advance was not harvested,” said Sormus.

Advance contracts also resulted in many grain producers not being able to benefit from the recent increase in grain prices. On the other hand, the high grain price causes problems for many farmers who buy grain for fodder.
The price of grain on the world markets surged to the highest level in two years when Russia banned grain exports due to poor crops as a result of last summer’s drought.

Grain has grown well this summer but yield is low, said Juhan Sargava, chairman of the Central Union of Estonian Farmers. “The crops were doing just fine but the grain has turned out to be significantly less at harvest time,” said Sargava. According to Sargava, central Estonia is still the country’s breadbasket and the harvest is good there. Elsewhere, low yields have been aggravated by heavy rains complicating the harvesting.

“Driving south-east from Parnu in the summer one could see fields under water. Between Voru and Lake Peipsi, some fields have turned completely black; those won’t be any good. Rapeseed has been harvested from the edges, but people have given up. It’s a rather varied picture,” he said.

Commenting on dairy prices, Sargava said they shouldn’t rise this year. “Our dairy prices are on the eurozone average level. There isn’t much room for growth.”