In dialogue with the Ministry of Development with farmers to increase their presence in the grassroots

The debate on the increase in the participation of rural people in the , with the Minister of Development, Takis Theodorikos stating “We are in favour of many possibilities and increasing competition for price deescalation. It is the government’s choice to strengthen producers’ participation in popular markets and citizens’ access directly to producers’ At the same time, it is also considered that people’s markets should be held in the afternoon in order to facilitate both consumers on their markets and producers as they have their agricultural jobs in the morning. As the Secretary-General for Trade and Consumer Protection Sotiris Anagnostopoulos has pointed out, speaking with journalists, the dialogue is in the final stage. Mr. Anagnostopoulos has pointed out that the aim of the Ministry of Development is to have greater competition but also an inmediate relationship between the farmer and the consumer. At the moment in the popular markets, he added, there is a mix of producers and traders. What will change is that easier access will be given to producers to sell their products in the popular markets and new popular markets are being considered. As he stressed, however, this will be done by decision of local government. That is to say, the TT body responsible for the popular markets in the region will take the decision as to where and when the popular markets will operate for producers and whether there will also be afternoon popular markets to facilitate consumers and the producers themselves, and, apart from the economic aspect of the functioning of the popular markets, there is also the part of the nuisance. According to the course of the dialogue, people’s markets without intermediaries will be “set up” mainly in the district’s urban centres and each producer will be able, within the limits of its county, to have its bench and sell its products. For the relevant bill that is being processed by producers on their part, they point out that in order to have even cheaper prices than it offers today a popular market, what needs to be done is to help the producer at the costs he pays while noting that there are several popular markets, it is not as important to create new ones as to make it easier for more producers to participate in the existing ones – which are 1000 across the country and 300 in the Attica basin – while many procedural problems such as lighting should be solved in their afternoon operation. Source: RES – ICM