After more than 70 years, the potato production is on the verge of collapse. Potato production in Venezuela is seriously threatened by a number of factors. The shortage of chemicals and spare parts for machinery, the 1,000% increase in the price of fertilizers, and the importation of a lot of damaged seeds are threatening the sector.
The producers of Carabobo, Aragua, Lara and Merida, grouped in the Venezuela's National Potato Federation, made it clear at a press conference that the crisis had deepened at the beginning of 2015. The shortage of supplies and the high cost of what little they got was our New Year's gift, said José Ernesto Torres, ironically, spokesman for the potato producers from Sanare.
There is no diesel or gas of any kind. If producers buy it in service stations, officials of the National Guard will extort them. There aren't agrochemicals and fertilizers. The sack of fertilizer went from 192 bolivars to 680. Five hundred bags used for the harvest, which were sold for $11,000 bolivars a few months ago, now cost $45,000 bolivars. A worker that earned 150 bolivars per day last year, now makes $500 bolivars. 90 days of irrigation cost $20,000 bolivars in the previous harvest, and it currently costs $50,000 bolivars.
Reviewing the cost structure is urgent. Aldemaro Ortega Pinto, president of the Potato Growers Association of Carabobo, was emphatic in this regard. The producers believe that their current situation is the result of wrong and unwise policies, "vegetable production will be over if we continue down this road," they say.
Everything indicates that the end-users will pay the consequences and that their pockets will be deeply affected. Currently, a kilo of potatoes is being offered between 80 and 1,000 bolivars in the stores, and expectations are that this upward trend will continue.
Added to that, the fields are becoming a junkyard. Producer Juan Martin noted that they have serious difficulties finding spare parts for their tractors, pumps and trucks. Everything is getting harder by the day.
Source: El Carabobeño