Latvia's electric company Latvenergo will partly compensate 100,000 needy families for their electric bills this winter, says Economy Minister Artis Kampars (New Era), reports news agency LETA. Kampars said that special ID cards will be introduced, enabling the holder to receive 500 kilowatt/hours of electricity for free. This is in an effort for stronger social solidarity. ID cards will be issued beginning Nov. 1, first to people with minimum incomes and to needy families with children. "If thrifty enough, these households will not have to pay anything for electricity all winter," said Kampars. The project will cost 3.7 million lats (5.2 million euros).
Analysts say that the Estonian foodstuffs industry is too fragmented and companies are at risk of bankruptcy as profit margins are squeezed, writes news agency LETA. CEO of Kadarbiku vegetable farm Ants Pak said that though in the past year "sales have grown nearly 20 percent, sales prices have fallen by nearly 30 per cent." At the same time, he says that "merging farms into major enterprises would not be realistic for Estonia." Mario Lambing, at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications' economic analysis division, said that the issue does not lie so much in the deepening decline in consumer prices, but rather in the fall of consumer demand. Chief of the Association of Foodstuffs Industries Sirje Potisepp says that the sector is under very strong price pressure and if this lasts for a lengthy period of time, the wave of bankruptcies would start. "Production inputs have not become much cheaper; on the contrary, the fuel prices are starting to grow due to the increased excise tax," she explained.
