Potato producers from Lara, Carabobo, Trujillo, Yaracuy and Mérida expect to meet on Wednesday with the deputy minister of Agriculture, Arelis Porras, so that they can come up with a formula that meets the requirements of the sector.
Julio Cruz, second vice president of the Federation of Vegetable and Potato Growers, said that this was the third time they scheduled the meeting with the government in the past three weeks.
"We’ve been hoping for this meetings for fifteen days. We have a problem at hand that goes beyond the seeds in poor condition, as the mechanism for imports that we need in order to cultivate 54,000 hectares annually have not been activated so far," said Cruz .
The producer said they risked running out of the national tuber if the seeds they bring from the Canadian company, World Potato seeds, are not here in November. The government, he said, is aware of the situation.
"The investment amounts to $ 9 million dollars. Each ton of seeds cost 1,200 dollars and we are going to import 7,000 tons that have to be Elite 1 and Elite 3, that is, of good quality. We import granola seeds, which we use in the Andes and Lara, as well as the Atlantic and Kenede seeds, which are used in Carabobo. The latter is required by November to start planting in early December. We in the Andes will begin in January, but the seeds are not being prepared there, as they have received no communication from the Venezuelan government, "he said.
If the meeting doesn’t take place on Wednesday, a commission of 500 affected producers will go to Miraflores to inform the President of the imminent danger, said Cruz.
"Producing a kilo of potatoes costs 60 bolivars, the freight to transport the harvest to the Midwest costs between 60,000 and 70,000 bolivars per truck. Without the necessary import, the price of potatoes per kilo could increase to between 1,200 and 1,500 bolivars," he said.
Source: noticiaaldia.com