Several farmers in Daraa attributed the drop in prices to the flooding of the market with imported vegetables and fruits. Farmer Marwan al-Hussein did not complete harvesting the yellow watermelon from his ten-dunum plot in the town of Koya after consecutive losses in selling the crop.
Al-Hussein told Enab Baladi that he planted his crop under plastic tunnels hoping to sell it at a price that would yield him profits, but the price dropped to 2,000 Syrian pounds per kilogram, which only covers the cost of harvesting.
As for farmer Odai Shihab, he has ten dunums of tomatoes in the Yarmouk Valley and fears that the price will drop further when the crop ripens, as the current price of tomatoes is 11,000 Syrian pounds per kilogram.
The losses from the pea season led farmer Mohammed Kiwan to shepherd sheep in his field, as the market price is 2,000 Syrian pounds per kilogram, which only covers harvesting costs. He said he would leave farming and look for alternatives if the price of vegetables continued to drop.
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