MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Food insecurity feared in Bolivia after weeks-long road blockades

“Without diesel, there is no food for 2025,” agricultural growers concurred

Bolivia's Association of Oilseed and Wheat Producers (Anapo) President Fernando Romero said Monday that diesel fuel shortages seriously threatened food supply in the short run as well as production in the future. Romero told the Chinese news service Xinhua that hundreds of companies in eastern Bolivia were on the brink of bankruptcy and pointed out that only 20% of rice growers had started planting.

“The lack of diesel paralyzes agricultural work. We have a lot of soybeans ready to harvest, which could spoil if we don't have diesel. Planting is also in danger; that is why we are in an emergency,” he explained. Without diesel, “there will be no production and, therefore, there will be no food either,” he added while insisting that agricultural cycles do not wait. Anapo was founded on May 15, 1974, to represent, defend, advise, and assist producers both technically and legally.

Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora had promised the day before that things would get back to normal in ten days starting Wednesday. The head of state will be meeting Friday with producers in La Paz to solve the diesel crisis, Rural Development Minister Yamil Flores announced Monday. ”We are already sending the official note today (Monday) so that on Friday, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the meeting with the CAO, Anapo, and the productive sector of Santa Cruz will take place as they have requested,“ Flores told reporters. ”The Government's response to these points is concrete, and we will make it known during the meeting,“ he also pointed out.

CAO Vice President Klaus Frerking stressed that working out these problems was of the utmost urgency. He concurred with Romero that ”without diesel, there is no food for 2025.”