Rice is bought at 16 denars a kilogram: Karanfilova Panovska from Koçani seeks urgent support for rice growers

The traditional rice harvest and threshing on the threshing floor closed the 35th edition of the “Koçani Rice Days” event in the village of Gorni Podlog, as Kanal 8 IPTV reports. The central celebration was held in the courtyard of the “St John the Baptist” monastery, with folk ensembles from Macedonia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Serbia and with diplomatic guests from the embassies of Germany and China. The prize for the best farmer went to the Church Council of the monastery, while the help of AD “Vodostopanstvo na Makedonija” in dealing with the flood risk in Gorni and Dolni Podlog was also honoured.

But the festival was overshadowed by the rice growers’ deep crisis. An SDSM opposition delegation, led by deputy chair Fani Karanfilova Panovska, also took part in the event; in a statement to the media she described the situation as catastrophic, according to Kanal 8’s reporting. “Today there is no organised purchase of rice. The rice that is bought, is bought at 16 denars. This price for a kilogram of rice is terribly humiliating,” she said, recalling that in 2021, at the time of the SDSM government, the purchase price was 42 denars.

According to her, the current price does not cover production costs at all, which have risen significantly with the higher prices of oil, chemical fertilisers and mechanisation, as Revolucioner writes. Panovska warned that because of these conditions and the lack of organised purchase, farmers risk being unable to sow their fields for the next season.

As a solution, she recalled that last week SDSM submitted to the Assembly a draft law for additional financial support of 10 denars per kilogram of rice produced and purchased. She called on Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and the governing VMRO-DPMNE majority to seriously support this legal solution and, with the announced budget revision by the end of the year, to secure the funds for the continuation of domestic rice production. Agriculture Minister Borçe Serafimovski, present at the event, said for his part that the state is seriously engaged in resolving the challenges of placement and prices, following meetings with producers and processors.