FARSALA (Office “E”)
By G. Gadelou
Winter may not yet have entered the plains of Thessaly, but what prevails in the ranks of cotton producers with the end of the ginning season is reminiscent of a deep winter.
After the great damage done to the plain of Thessaly by the disastrous passage of “Daniel” and “Elias”, another blow comes to burden the otherwise difficult year and it is none other than the low price recorded by cotton on the commodity exchange. The reason for the price falling in the last 25 days and hovering around 76 cents/lb, a price that translates at the ginnery gate to 57 cents/kg, while the Euro-Dollar exchange rate at this time is at 1.07. Specifically, the price that cotton is now trading on the Stock Exchange, was the product again on the commodity board, in December 2020.
The tool of pre-sales through contracts that many last year took advantage of and achieved a selling price of part of their production close to 1 euro, this year has hardly paid off due to the “low flights” during the spring and summer.
With the large losses of plant capital in the plain, the low price of the product comes to give the producers a gratuitous shot. Farmers this year are sure to record only losses and the question is how they will cope to grow again next year as they have delivered their crop and are waiting for a positive juncture to reverse the negative scenario and save them from the brink.
