Khaberni - Farmers are busy picking zucchini fruits, as is the case with all fruits, selling zucchini at low prices that do not reflect the effort and costs they have incurred, as they say.
This is a testimony from one of the zucchini farmers, who says: "I sell a box of zucchini for one dinar, knowing that it costs me 75 piastres, including picking, packing, and transportation, excluding workers' wages."
The trader adds: "If the production is high, it costs half a dinar per box, and if it's low, 75 piastres, excluding fertilizer and spraying. One package costs the farmer two and a half dinars. Someone who planted 70,000 is losing 20,000, and there are people losing 30,000 and 40,000."
Never-ending Costs
The journey of the ripe zucchini crop starts from the ground, then to the transport vehicles, and finally to the central market, a journey filled with costs for the farmers, from picking, transporting, workers' wages, and fees paid to the central market."
Auction Time in the Market
As soon as the zucchini crop reaches the central market, a new story begins. The auction on the zucchini has started, and the auctioneer's voice fills the place. The situation in the market is like an auction on something valuable, but the prices here are a dinar or less, not hundreds of thousands of dinars.
The auctioneer's voice calls out, "A lira! A lira! Who will raise? No one bids, then he calls out again, 90 piastres, who will buy, then 80 piastres, until one of the traders succeeds in getting it."
Here's a shocking story that reflects the reality of the situation, as the auctioneer says, the cost of a box of zucchini to the farmer reaches a dinar and a half or 170 piastres, but the market condition is not good, so it's sold for a dinar."
A farmer shouts, saying: "The box costs me 60 piastres, and I sell it for a lira. A cubic meter of well water costs 80 piastres. It means a loss on top of a loss, and it's the same with all varieties, not just zucchini."
The Price Difference Between the Trader and the Consumer is Clear
One of the traders, the penultimate link in the journey of a box of zucchini, says: "We buy a box of zucchini for a dinar and sell it for a dinar and a half. May God compensate the farmer and help the citizen."
The Consumer: The Last Link... And the One Bearing the Price Most
After the zucchini crop leaves the central market with the trader who bought it from the farmer, another story begins, between the trader and the consumer, considering them the last two links in the journey of the zucchini crop.
Central market prices are forgotten; once the zucchini leaves it, there is a new pricing. The primary master here is the trader, who strives to gain the largest profit.
A simple tour around the vegetable shops finds the kilo price varying from one shop to another and by a significant margin sometimes, as is the case between East and West, North and South Amman.
The price of a box of zucchini is sold for less than a dinar in the central market, and the individual kilo is sold to the citizen for around a dinar, more or less.
This is the market equation in Jordan. Who plants loses, who sells gains, and who buys pays the price.
