Factory owners and farmers here claim they have lost millions because of the shortage and delay in the delivery of raw materials used in the manufacture of cork boxes. Many farmers say they had to get rid of vegetable and fruit yields which led to less supply and higher prices on the market. This comes as Ramadan approaches and there is a greater demand for fruit and vegetables. Khaled Al-Bluwi said he has lost about SR20,000 daily. “For a month now I've been trying to get cork boxes from Tabuk factories for the packing of products. There's a shortage of raw materials the factories use to make the boxes,” he said. “We (farmers) had to destroy our products and some of it died on the trees.” Ali Mahmoud, a farmer, said he found factories had stopped manufacturing because they did not have the raw materials needed. Several factories representatives said they suffered losses because they had to stop producing for several days after a delay in receiving raw materials from a company in the Eastern Province. “There is a long waiting period for the delivery of the materials we requested despite us paying the complete cost amount to the company in the Eastern Province,” said Sayed Ahmad, salesman at a Tabuk cork box factory. “Despite our SR10,000-a-day losses we managed to maintain our prices and did not raise them for farmers,” he added. __
