Conveagro: Farmers will need 6 months to recover from the effects of rains and floods

Heavy rains reported in recent days have affected harvest products that are produced mainly in the north, including rice, lemon, banana and corn.

The President of the National Assembly of Peruvian Agriculture (Conveagro), Anaximandre Rojas, notes that more than 11,000 hectares are currently affected in regions such as Tumbes and La Libertad.

“We have an impact on basic family basket because these prices will be increased. We are talking, first of all, about products that are at ground level, such as vegetables and herbs, which cannot be restored; We also have rice and cotton that should have been harvested, these investments will not be able to pay off because they were buried in the flood,” he explained at the RPP.

Rojas reiterated that commodities such as rice, cotton, beans and vegetables will soon rise in price due to this situation.

“On the subject of sugar cane, if they follow rainy The price of sugar will also rise, freight rates will also rise due to flooding of the rivers, everything is paid by the end consumer,” he added.

The union spokesman elaborated that in the case of rice, each affected farmer lost an investment of around S$8,000 per hectare, while for cotton, the average investment was S$10,000 per hectare.

Rojas calculated that it could take at least half a year for farmers in the north to recover from the impact, which rainy.

“The producer has already lost everything, and it will take six months to recover, because the campaign, for example, for rice lasts six months (…) Depending on the crop, if the rains increase, they will be longer,” he said.

Rojas noted that with many people left without farms, houses and livestock due to flooding, the amount of disaster insurance offered by the government is not enough to help farmers.

Prices have gone up

Although Conveagro indicated last week that the impact on prices could only be felt in April, as of this Monday, prices can already be seen rising.

At the Great Wholesale Market of Lima, it has been proven that about 80% of the major products which are for sale increased their prices by 234.9%.

The latest report from the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri) indicates that the prices of 21 of the 26 main products sold in wholesalers roses, mainly lemon, American green beans, canary beans and Creole garlic.

Only in the case of lemon, the price rose from S/2.34 to S/7.83, that is, in one day it rose by more than S/5.

Also, this Monday catering products at the Great Wholesale Market of Lima fell by 31.1%.