Despite the government's authorization for free imports of potatoes for a month, a measure taken because of the scarcity of potatoes in the country, Nicaragua won't be able to import said product.
The authorization is valid from July 5 to August 5, but the Institute of Animal and Plant Health Protection (IPSA) may take up to three months to issue phytosanitary permits. This has prevented the entry of potatoes, which has triggered the contraband of the product.
According to Pedro Lopez, president of the Association of Vegetable producers of Nicaragua (Asoveg), importing this product from countries like Guatemala and the Netherlands takes between 20 and 32 days.
"Not allowing potato imports has affected the final consumers, as prices will always remain high," said Lopez.
In the last two months potato prices have experienced a considerable increase. According to the monthly statistics of the Central Bank of Nicaragua, a pound of potatoes was being sold for 15.15 cordobas, on average, in May. Since then, prices in the markets of Managua have increased to up to 30 cordobas per pound. The weekly monitoring carried out by this
Journal indicates that, this weekend, potato prices oscillated between 20 and 25 cordobas per pound.
Expectations are that national potato production, which is estimated at nearly 800,000 quintals, will hit the markets soon. However, according to the president of Asoveg, that volume won't be enough to cover the local demand.
IPSA recidivist
The Vegetable Producers Association is not the only organization that believes there are deficiencies in the work of IPSA. This week, the Nicaraguan Association of Shipping Agents (ANAN) alluded to the fact that the country has also declined in the Logistics Performance Index, which the World Bank performs every two years, to the IPSA.
According to the ANAN, IPSA's slow inspections and slow permit process have delayed the imports and exports processes.
Contraband
Given the scarcity of domestic potato, caused by the bad winter and the lack of import permits, traders have been stocking smuggled potatoes.
"Even though they want to regulate imports, there will be contraband because that's how we are solving this situation nowadays. The country is smuggling potatoes from Honduras but, unfortunately, this hasn't lowered this product's price," said David Lopez, the secretary of the Association of Vegetable Producers from Nicaragua.
Source: laprensa.com.ni