Skopje, 7 April 2023 (MIA) — The government on Tuesday will revise the prices of the eleven kinds of fruits and vegetables, especially tomatoes and cucumbers, that it previously put a cap on through the end of April, Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi said Friday.

The government will review new prices reported by importers to the Customs Administration, Bekteshi said, and revise the frozen prices. The new decision will come into force after it is published in the "Official Gazette."

According to the economy minister, produce buyers had reported higher import prices for tomatoes and cucumbers, so the government price freeze should be corrected to reflect the increase.

"The correction will be a percentage depending on the increased import costs reported in the Customs Administration since March 28," Bekteshi said.

"The higher the import prices of products are the higher the capped price will be," Bekteshi said after his meeting Friday with produce importers and economic chamber representatives at the Ministry of Economy.

He said the meeting was constructive. "We agreed to make a slight price correction, considering they have started reporting import prices that correspond to invoices in other countries. But there will be no prices like there were ten days ago, when the retail prices [of produce] were around 130-140 denars and then upward of 150 denars," Bekteshi said.

He said no fruits or vegetables covered by the government's price freeze would cost more than 100 denars per kilogram.

"There will be a slight correction regarding tomatoes and cucumbers because there are no more imports from Turkey and Greece where more of them are produced. Generally speaking, until the end of the month, they will be imported from Albania and Serbia," he said, adding that when domestic producers place their produce on the market, prices are expected to drop.

The economy minister also announced that any importers who submitted false invoices to the Customs Administration would be sanctioned for tax evasion. mr/