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Alvaro Cruz Rojas – Editor-in-Chief
– “Like onions? Like tomatoes? Like bananas?” In the last few days of December, I asked these three questions to a woman who was selling vegetables in a small truck on the streets of the capital. His response came in a hurry.
– “Onions for two for a dollar, I’ll give you four tomatoes for a dollar, and four bananas for a dollar,” he replied calmly.
– “Everything is expensive,” I replied.
– “Yes, that’s how vegetables and fruits come to us,” he explained again, in a disturbing tone.
As they say in the country: “If nothing else…”, I have to pay these fees like thousands of others these days.
This is the price we have to pay for abandoning agriculture. El Salvador has to import more than 80% of its food, which has also led to a decline in interest in agriculture since the civil war and land reforms in the 1980s (more populism and social resentment than interest in agriculture) ended interest in agriculture and agricultural production. Even on the vegetable trucks there are consequences.
No one seems interested in farming, planting, cultivating. Not because of the risk or input costs, but because the market is only accommodating imports of fruits, vegetables, basic grains, meat and dairy products from Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua. To this we add remittances for many in rural areas.
To the issue of prices, we must also add that instability in neighboring countries also carries costs. We saw this during the October protests in Guatemala, when protesters blocked roads and, with them, the arrival of fruit and vegetables. Prices subsequently rose but have not yet returned to their previous levels, even though everything is now normal in neighboring countries.
We’ve seen this in Honduras and Nicaragua during their respective crises. We’ve run out of supplies of beans, cheese, and meat.
But with good government planning and support from the international community, as well as incentives to reduce our foreign dependence, all of these fruits, vegetables and grains can be grown and cultivated here. They can. This has been proven by the Monterosa family, which exports 5,000 pounds of fresh Loroco to the United States every week from San Rafael Obrajuelo in La Paz.
We have to bet on agriculture, I am not an expert in this area but I am sure there are enough professionals in the country to design a plan to improve the situation because to continue paying a dollar for two onions or a dollar for two onions and four tomatoes is just too much.
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