Farmers dump tonnes of vegetables outside Riga City Council over school meals tender

Farmers dumped several tonnes of Latvian-grown vegetables, including cabbages and potatoes, outside Riga City Council on Thursday morning in protest at the city’s catering tenders for schools and kindergartens. The protest was organised by Zemnieku saeima, a farmers’ association.

The farmers are symbolically offering the vegetables to councillors for a meal to mark Latvia’s national holidays. “If Latvia’s largest municipality cannot make sure local vegetables end up on children’s lunch plates, we are ‘giving’ them to Riga councillors for their national holiday feast,” said Mārtiņš Trons, a board member of the association. If the councillors turn the gift down, the association has invited Riga residents to take the vegetables for free.

The 300-kilometre dispute

At the centre of the protest is a €26.8 million catering tender for 27 schools and kindergartens announced this year. Its terms allow some products to be delivered from up to 300 kilometres beyond Riga’s administrative boundary. Zemnieku saeima says the radius covers large parts of neighbouring countries, gives Latvian produce too little advantage and makes it hard for Latvian authorities to check where food comes from. A second tender, for meals at 101 schools and kindergartens, is to follow.

The farmers also say the lowest price carries too much weight and want tenders to put more value on freshness, seasonality, quality and sustainable supply chains, with stricter checks on what caterers actually deliver to schools. In September the council rejected the association’s call to halt the tender, LSM, the Latvian public broadcaster, reported.

Green procurement no longer mandatory

The association also points to a change in the law. Amendments to the Public Procurement Law that took effect on 9 June removed the article on green public procurement, and Cabinet regulations that made green criteria mandatory, including for food and catering, were repealed. The Procurement Monitoring Bureau has said buyers can still use such criteria but are no longer required to. The Ministry of Agriculture is drafting guidelines on sustainable food procurement, but the farmers say binding rules are needed.

“We expect concrete action from Riga City Council, the government and the Saeima — transparent tender terms, real control of deliveries and predictable opportunities to work together,” Trons said. The farmers say they are ready to protest again if nothing changes.