National coffee production it would not be enough to fill the spaces that the imported one would leave on the shelves If the government of Nicolás Maduro ordered to withdraw the international brands of this category that are obtained in the domestic market, as the deputy to the National Assembly (AN) of Nicolás Maduro recently said, Freddy bernal.
The parliamentarian asked, on May 24, that in a maximum of 15 days Colombian coffee leaves the Táchira market, as a strategy implemented supposedly for the sake of recover the production of the product in the country, which is at levels prior to the 1950s, when 38,542 tons were produced in Venezuela, according to the defunct Ministry of Agriculture and Breeding (MAC), reviewed As it is.
In the last coffee harvest carried out between October 2020 and January 2021, approximately 450,000 quintals of green coffee (20,700 tons, on average) one of the worst harvests in the history of coffee growing in Venezuela. This represents a 77% drop compared to the 91,877 tons that were harvested in 2001.
2020 production was affected by a strong summer period, which did not allow the crop to develop, and because of the little fertilization that was carried out due to the high prices of fertilizers.
A sack of this agroinsumo, of 50 kilos, is achieved between 35 and 45 dollars. For one hectare of coffee, approximately between 11 and 13 bags of fertilizers.
The production not enough to fill the shelves completely. In the center of the country you can see a lot of Brazilian coffee and in the border areas, like Táchira, Colombian. But, the measure of collecting coffee from other sister nations It would help that the little coffee that is produced could come out at higher prices that stimulates the producer to continue planting and that, at this moment of fertilization, it can buy the necessary inputs to strengthen this important item that affects more than 50,000 Venezuelan families, “he said. As it is, Paéz security, a coffee producer and director of the business at the Confederation of Associations of Agricultural Producers of Venezuela (Fedeager).
After facing severe shortage cycles, the country has recovered the supply of basic products and other items since 2019 due to the massification of imports as a consequence of the measures taken by the government of Nicolás Maduro, mainly the exchange and price control flexibilities and exemption from tariff taxes.
The coffee representative in the country points out that currently a quintal (46 kilos) of green coffee that coffee growers sell to roasters or intermediaries, costs between 80 and 85 dollars, when it should be at least between 140 and 160 dollars, roughly so that it can compete with international prices, which have been going up. The kilo of gourmet coffee is between 18,000,000 and 25,000,000 bolivars.
However, Páez argues that In the current conditions for production, the quintal in Venezuela should be sold at a higher price due to the multiple factors that severely affect coffee growers, mainly the high prices of agro-inputs and the critical fuel shortage, which has forced some producers to go to the black market, where they sell the liter in dollars.
In this sense, the president of the Agricultural and Livestock Union of the Andes (Unagandes), Antonio Escalona, alert that a major shortage is on the horizon, if the Venezuelan government does not solve the fuel crisis.
Escalona reported that 1,236 affiliated producers in that organization they hold permanent and sectoral assemblies to try to find solutions to the lack of fuel.
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