Venezuelan farmers warned of “unprecedented” food shortages due to lack of fuel

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Agricultural and Livestock Union of the Andes of Venezuela (Unagandes), one of the most active of its kind in the country, on Monday warned of a food shortage as a result of the lack of fuel, which, it said, is preventing over 90% of producers from plowing the fields.

“The shortage of diesel in the country heralds an unprecedented food shortage in Venezuela”, said in a press release Antonio Escalona Araujo, president of Unagandes, representing 236 producers from six states in the western part of the country: Táchira, Mérida, Trujillo, Maracaibo, Lara and Barinas.

He said that the “winter cycle”, about to begin, is the most important and productive of the year and that “it is about to be lost” due to the fact that farmers and ranchers do not have fuel “to operate the machinery for tillage, sowing, spraying, harvesting and transportation.”

“With the arrival of the first rains, farmers are beginning to prepare and plow the land, but the lack of fuel prevents more than 90% of producers to start planting,” he said.

According to Escalona, the loss of 50 tons of vegetables “is a fact in the hub of the Andean states.” He also said that there are “warning signs in the decrease of some products on market shelves” and food trading centers. “Today we produce only 48% of the installed capacity of chicken meat and egg production is only 26%,” he added.

Fuel shortages are a problem that Venezuela has been facing for years, although with more critical periods than others.

In Venezuela, all activities related to the oil industry are reserved exclusively to the State, through the government-owned PDVSA, although in recent years the regime has allowed some mixed capital companies (public and private) to exploit fields in several areas of the country.

Source: infobae