by Paris Ayiomamitis
Greece’s ‘potato movement’ – a grassroots initiative which grabbed the world’s attention almost three years ago by cutting out the middleman in transactions between producers and consumers – will continue doing business according to one of its founders.
Ilias Tsolakidis, one of the founders of the group that began the initiative, said it will continue its struggle and announced that farmers will be distributing products (apples, potatoes and lentils) to consumers on Saturday in Katerini, northern Greece with the permission of the local municipality – despite a law passed in parliament last May banning street trading in communities with a population of over 3,000 and denying new farmers street vendor licenses.
The Voluntary Action group, which launched the initiative in February 2012, described the new legislation as a ‘devious attempt’ to abolish No Middlemen (Link in Greek) – dubbed the ‘potato movement’ by the media.
“In other words, a farmer will not be able to sell his products directly to consumers but only to merchants and supermarket,” Tsolakidis told ThePressProject International, adding that the Voluntary Action group will start a national campaign to force the government to withdraw the new legislation.
Tsolakidis said that instead of cracking down on the middlemen and limiting their profits, the government has sought to abolish street markets in order to ‘serve the interests of multinationals and large supermarket chains’.
The ‘No Middlemen’ movement began when the Voluntary Action group invited potato farmers to sell their products directly to consumers in its hometown of Katerini in an act of solidarity – as Greece faced record unemployment and an economy that was shrinking at an alarming rate.
The idea of cutting out supermarkets and grocery stores from the picture caught on and spread like a wildfire around the country. Prices were slashed and the movement eased the financial strain on thousands of households and shed light on the problem of profiteering by supermarket chains. Apart from potatoes, the transactions also included olives, rice, onions and other staples.