Tomato prices in Piata Obor. Why are traders nervous when their vegetables are photographed?

I enter the large hall of Oboru and look for the tomato stalls. First price: 15 lei/kg “Preciously sweet Romanian tomatoes”. Prekos is an early tomato hybrid, originally from Bulgaria.

I walk a few more steps and discover another stall with “very good” tomatoes, price 17 lei/kg.

Sticking to these I see bunches of tomatoes from ‘Italy, very good’ 8 lei/kg. Why Italian tomatoes are half the price of domestic tomatoes remains a mystery to me. I have no one to ask, there is no one at the stand.

Next: “fat, very sweet and beautiful tomatoes”, 18 lei/kg. As I move towards the middle of the hall, the price constantly increases. From 15 lei/kg, at the first meal, to 18 lei/kg now. And that’s not all.

On another table, fat tomatoes are priced at 22 lei/ kg. Next to these, the curly ones are sold for 25 lei/ kg. The precos is 20 lei/kg.

I also find, probably, the most expensive tomatoes in Obor (Thursday, April 25, 2024): “Romania tomatoes”, 30 lei/kg, the Prekos variety. Next, Romania still red: 25 leirespectively 20 lei/kg. It should be noted that the seller used the national label, instead of the characteristic one: fat, curly, sweet, etc.

Another combines the origin with the traits: “Romania tomatoes DELICIOUS FROGS”, 23 lei/kg. Next, fat tomatoes, 18 lei/kg.

At another stall: Precos tomatoes, 30 lei/kgfat pink tomatoes, 25 lei/kgvery sweet tomatoes, 20 lei.

I don’t insist anymore, we have reached the minimum and maximum limits of tomato prices in Piata Obor.

A pedestrian sees me photographing tomatoes and reacts with an aggressive voice: “Why are you taking pictures of my tomatoes? Why don’t you ask permission to take a picture of my tomatoes. Why are you posting the prices?”

I find out, in the course of discussions marked by hostility, that the marketers in Obor are disturbed by the press materials which, they say, would be unfavorable to them: their goods are presented as expensive, and the origin of the goods is not even Romanian.

They did not seem to be convinced that my approach has no other purpose than a purely informative one. My explanation that photographing vegetables and prices is not an illegal act did not seem to convince them either. So I’m warning you: in Obor Square, posing vegetables on stalls is equivalent to posing nuclear warheads, in prohibited areas!

source: G4Food