Tobacco farmers are waiting for money that keeps being promised and keeps being late. The subsidies for the 2025-2026 crop still haven't been paid out - promised first for April, then for May, and now the deadline has been moved to mid-June. For people whose entire year's work depends on that payment, every shift of the deadline isn't a statistic, it's an empty fridge.

The head of the Union of Tobacco Growers' Associations, Kire Ristevski, admitted the delay: „The payment of subsidies will be postponed, and I apologise to the tobacco growers for the delay of 10 to 15 days - the payment will be made in full by the middle of the month.” The apology is nice, but you can't smoke it.

On top of the delay, the farmers are also facing a cut. Direct payments for top-grade tobacco have fallen from 100 to 80 denars a kilo, with lower rates for second and third grade (70 and 60 denars). Then there's the complication of 91 growers ordered to return subsidies from 2024 over irregularities in the declared acreage - a debt the Union negotiated to have forgiven, which in turn raises the question of where the state will recover that money from.

On social media the discontent is blunt - one grower wrote: „The deadlines keep moving - April, May, now mid-June. They're shameless con artists.” The harvest of this year's crop, estimated at around 31 million kilos on 15,000 hectares, has already begun in the east. When the state simultaneously claims its finances are excellent yet has no money for the tobacco farmers - which of the two pictures is the real one?