Over fifty onion producers from the states of Lara, Portuguesa and Trujillo held a meeting with the authorities of the national government.
The Deputy Minister of Agro-productive and Agrifood Circuits from the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Franchi Armando, said that the idea behind this meeting was to come up with strategies to ensure the consumption of onions in the country. He also spoke about the current price of this crop for the consumers, which he considered to be outrageous.
"We're looking to ensure that the producers are satisfied with their profit margins as well as assuring the consumers a fair price when they buy the product," said the deputy minister.
Meanwhile, the producers discussed the circumstances that led to a raise in production costs and that have prevented them from distributing their crops in the state's networks and state agencies responsible for the marketing of this important crop.
Juan Carlos Guanipa, a producer from Moran, in the state of Lara, explained that their main problem was in getting the supply of necessary inputs such as manure and fertilizers from Agropatria's organization shop.
Meanwhile, Ruben Gimenez, a producer of the municipality of Jimenez, Lara, said: "The first thing that should be done is ensuring inputs, then delivering credits; that way we avoid people using the money on anything other than food production." He added that there should be no intermediaries when selling because it increases final costs.
After hearing the producers, Deputy Franchi urged the organization to ensure the proper supply of inputs to solve all these problems.
He stressed that the government was committed on ensuring the inputs for the producers and added that the producers had to ensure a fair price for onions.
Source: EntornoInteligente