Soaring food prices have emerged as one of Turkey’s gravest economic woes, and everyone seems to agree now that food inflation will be a major factor in the March 31 local elections. True to style, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has sought to rein in the prices through coercive measures, refusing to acknowledge the core of the problem.

In November, the authorities raided onion depots at the behest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who blamed hoarders for the surging price of onions, a key staple of Turkish cuisine. The raids, however, failed to bring the prices down and ultimately, the government had to zero down tariffs on onions to cheapen imports.

More recently, Erdogan lashed out at groceries and supermarkets over fruit and vegetable prices as some of them reached unprecedented levels. “Interest rates and inflation have declined, but the prices of fruits and vegetables at grocery stores continue to rise,” he said Jan 21. “If grocery stores continue to try to exploit my people, it is our duty to hold them to account and we will.” In response, supermarket chains chose to do away with some products, including eggplants and green peppers, instead of selling them at the soaring prices and risking the wrath of the government.

Someone had to remind Erdogan, however, that the ostensible drops in interest rates and inflation owed to tax reductions introduced by the government and that those incentives had no impact on food prices, fueled mainly by the rising cost of imported agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and fodder. How can one pull down prices if one cannot decrease the cost of inputs?