Transport crisis in sugar beets

Despite the beet campaign in Elazığ, the price of beet has not been announced and the producers who harvest it have transportation problems.

While the Elazığ Sugar Factory gave 3,500 lira to the producers as transportation fee, the transporters demanded 11,000 lira as transportation fee, which caused the producers to be unable to transport their beets.

3500 TL GIVEN TO PRODUCERS, 11 THOUSAND TL REQUESTED BY CARRIERS

Farmer Ramazan Sakin claimed that although the sugar factory pays a transport fee of 3,500 lira, the transporters want a transport fee of 11,000 lira, he said: “We plant our beets and harvest them, but we cannot take them to the factory because of aa transport costs. Transporters ask for a transport fee of 10 to 11 thousand lira. “We are thinking about how we will harvest this crop,” he said.

“The Turkish sugar factory pays a transportation cost of 3,500 lira, but we cannot pay the difference because the cost is high,” Sakin said:

“We will have to pay 7,000 lira out of our pocket. Private factories deliver their products themselves, but Türk-Şeker pays a small shipping fee. We cannot deliver the product with this money.

We do not know the price that the government currently gives for beets and we have deep doubts. We expect 4 thousand tons of production here, but we have not yet taken the product out of the ground because there is a transportation problem. “We are talking to our friends about whether we should dismantle it next year.”

‘IF IT CONTINUES LIKE THIS, WE WILL STOP PRODUCTION’

Producer Aykut Demir, who said he planted 250 decares of beet this year and started harvesting it, complained about rising transportation prices and the lack of announcement of beet prices, saying:

“The government gave us 169 TL per ton, but the transporters want 11 thousand TL from us, we will have to pay 6 thousand 500 TL out of our pocket. Last year the price of beets was announced 10 days before a campaign, but this year it was not announced either. We don’t know what will happen, we are in a difficult situation, if it continues like this we will stop producing beets, that’s what the farmers think.

There are 4,000 to 5,000 cultivated areas here and this region covers 50 percent of the Elazığ sugar factory. Last year we also had a water problem, and this year the canals were not cleaned, the lines broke and we could not supply water to our beets. “We were able to buy 3 to 4 tons of beets in places where we would have bought 7 to 8 tons of beets.”

‘HOW WILL THIS FARMER WIN?’

Kürşat Aykaç stated that although the number of farmers’ deliveries increased compared to last year, the transportation rates provided by the state are insufficient and said:

“We started harvesting beets due to the start of the campaign, but until yesterday we did not know the transportation prices. Transportation costs were announced at 169 TL, but the transporters want 350 TL per ton, so the transportation fee paid by the State does not save us. The truckers are already here, but they don’t transport.

Nowadays, beets come to the Elazığ sugar factory from the Bismil district of Diyarbakır, which is very far away. The shipping price they give to Bismil is 505 TL. Carriers accept this price. It costs us 169 TL for a distance of 60-70 kilometers. It is not yet clear how we will close the gap, not even the price of beets.

‘WE END UP GIVING POCKET’

Field laborers worked last year for 200 liras, but today they work for 500 liras. We were confused on what to do. We are out of pocket, we are afraid that they will charge us the same price for beets.

If they do not regulate prices, saying that inflation has not increased, we will be in trouble. The current cost of beets is 2,800 lire, come and let me do the calculations. How will this farmer do it and win? “A bag of fertilizer cost 1,050 lira, diesel 41 lira and a worker’s daily wage 500 lira,” he said.

‘FUEL IS 41 TL, WE CAN’T WORK CHEAP’

Transporter Burhan Çevik, waiting in front of the beet field to transport the farmers’ harvest, said:

“We came to Muratçık village to transport beets, but farmers are hurt by the transportation prices announced to farmers. We cannot carry out transportation because the factory offers a very low transportation price. Since the farmers were offended, they decided not to remove the beets. We are also waiting in the field. Due to rising costs, farmers are right and so are we. We cannot work cheap, we are waiting because everything has increased by 100 percent.

Currently there is half the difference between the shipping cost that the factory gives us and the price we want. We transport between 9 and 10 thousand liras.

Last year diesel cost 23 liras, we brought it to 4,500 liras, this year diesel cost 41 liras, a pair of tires cost 40,000 liras, expenses have increased, everything has increased by 100 percent. “The farmer is right and we are right, I don’t know how to find a middle ground.”