This initiative seeks to reduce dependence on imports and improve food sovereignty in a context of increasing costs of basic necessities since his mandate.
“Sorry guys, I know I’m going all Hugo Chavez on you” (I’m sorry, guys, I know I’m going full Hugo Chavez here), Bukele posted in a message in English on the social network X.
We are doubling the number of Farmers’ Markets, and the producers and importers tell me they can lower prices even more due to the increase in sales and the fact that they can now also buy their supplies wholesale. Additionally, producers in other countries are contacting them…
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 11, 2024
The Salvadoran government has opened some agricultural markets as a measure to mitigate the increase in food prices in the Central American country.
“We are doubling the number of agricultural markets, and producers and importers tell me that they can lower prices even more due to the increase in sales and the fact that they can now also buy their supplies wholesale,” said Bukele, without specifying the number of these establishments or detailing sales figures.
He added: “Producers from other countries are contacting them because they also want a share. Since the middleman is no longer extorting them and their profits have tripled, they want to support this new scheme with part of their windfall.”
The Salvadoran president, who despite the constitutional prohibition has just begun his second consecutive term, has not indicated whether or not these agricultural markets can supply food to the more than six million Salvadorans.
On July 5, Bukele called on food importers and distributors who “unjustifiably increase prices” to “stop” “abusing the Salvadoran people” and ordered them to lower prices or “they will have problems.”
“I am going to call on food importers, traders and wholesalers to stop abusing the Salvadoran people or else not complain later,” he warned.
Analysts have pointed out that the problem of food prices in El Salvador is due in part to the lack of a national agricultural policy and the high dependence on food imports.
The president of the Salvadoran Chamber of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers Association (Campo), Luis Treminio, told EFE that “what must be guaranteed first is food sovereignty so as not to depend on producing countries.”
He commented that the dependence on food imports is 90% for vegetables, 60% for dairy products, 32% for corn, 25% for beans and 33% for rice.
According to official figures, since 2019, when Bukele came to power, the basic food basket has increased by an average of 28% in urban areas and 26.4% in rural areas.
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