National coffee production would not be enough to fill the spaces that imported coffee would leave on the shelves if the government of Nicolás Maduro ordered the removal of international brands in this area, as Maduro’s deputy to the National Assembly, Freddy Bernal, recently said.
The official parliamentarian requested, on May 24, that the Colombian coffee leave the Táchira market in a maximum of 15 days, as a strategy in order to supposedly recover the production of the product in the country, which is at levels of the years 50, when 38,542 tons were produced in Venezuela, according to the defunct Ministry of Agriculture and Breeding (MAC).
“The goal is to recover coffee production in the state of Táchira. I give the merchants who bring coffee from Colombia 15 days to take it off their shelves, it is not possible that they are bringing Colombian coffee, which is 10% coffee and 90% beans, which have a smell of coffee, and let’s continue to sabotage the Táchira production, ”he declared from the Táchira Legislative Council session hall.
In the last coffee harvest, between October 2020 and January 2021, approximately 450 thousand quintals of green coffee were harvested (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.
The 2020 production was affected by a strong summer period, which did not allow the crop to develop and by the little fertilization that was carried out due to the high prices of fertilizers.
“The production is 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 towns would help that the little coffee that is produced could come out at higher prices that stimulates the producer to continue sowing and that, at this moment of fertilization, he can buy the necessary inputs to strengthen this important item that affects more than 50 thousand Venezuelan families. Giving preference to Venezuelan ground coffee on the shelves could increase the price of coffee a little and favor the producer, who is so hit by inflation, “said Diogledy Páez, coffee producer and director of the field at the Confederation of Associations of Agricultural Producers from Venezuela (Fedeagro).
After facing severe cycles of scarcity, the country has recovered the supply of basic products and other items since 2019, due to the massification of imports as a result of the measures taken by the Maduro government, mainly the flexibilities of exchange controls and of prices and the exemption of customs taxes.
Páez 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, approximately, so that it can compete with international prices , which have been going up. The kilo of gourmet coffee is between 18 and 25 million bolivars.
However, it maintains that under 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 shortage of fuels. that has forced some to turn to the black market, where they sell the liter in dollars.
In the upper area of Portuguesa, a gandola with fuel arrives every 20 days, on average, says the director of Fedeagro, which makes it impossible for producers to carry out the work in the coffee plantations that are permanent during the year and transfer inputs and personnel from the populated centers, low-lying and rural areas to the production units, a distance that is covered between half and two hours, depending on the area, he added.
In this sense, the president of the Agricultural and Livestock Union of the Andes (Unagandes), Antonio Escalona, warns that a large shortage is on the horizon if the Venezuelan government does not resolve the fuel crisis.
Escalona reported that 1,236 producers affiliated with that organization hold permanent and sectoral assemblies to try to find solutions to the lack of fuel.
“The idea is to place the products in the local market and avoid the transport of food to Caracas, to the central and eastern states due to the multiple problems that affect the country. In large cities, such as Caracas, food shortages are beginning to be felt. Car, for example, the wholesale market in Caracas that supplies food outlets in the central region of the country is inactive because no merchandise is arriving ”.
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