Greek potato growers are finding new ways to reach cash-strapped consumers as the country suffers one of the worst economic crises in European history, the Guardian has reported.
Christos Kamenides, professor of agricultural marketing at the University of Thessaloniki, is facilitating direct sales, which he says allow consumers to get 'good quality food for a third of the price they would normally pay'.
Moreover, he says, 'the producers get their money straight away'.
Basically, a town hall announces a sale, locals say what they want, the town hall informs Kamenides of the volume needed and his students call farmers to find a supplier, whereupon a collection time and place are arranged.
Kamenides told the Guardian: 'Today, we have one truck here, and two in another municipality up the road. Tomorrow we have a sale with four trucks – that's 100 tonnes of potatoes, straight from the producer to the consumer, with nobody in the middle pushing up prices.'
The movement appears to be extremely popular. One shopper Elisabet Tsitsopoulou commented: 'Salaries here are so low now, and still falling, but the price of everything seems to stay just as high as it ever was. This is much cheaper, much less than half price.'
And producers are equally enthusiastic. Apostolos Kasapis said: 'I get paid straight away. The profit is not very high, just a bit above the production cost, but I get the money immediately, which in this crisis is very important.'
The movement has been enthusiastically taken up by local mayors, and Kamenides is reportedly working on a wider scheme for unified cooperatives involving both producers and consumers.
