Round table: Sales fell by 50% due to protests

Despite hopes that small companies de Mesa Redonda in the Christmas campaign, sales are not up to expectations due to recent protests and roadblocks.

Roman Nazario, Vice President of the Round Table Chamber of Commerce, notes that sales of this trade center have fallen between 40% and 50% in recent days.

“Since the first of December, we have had 40-50% less sales. Roundtable attendance dropped to 50% and sales fell proportionally. impossible,” he told RPP.

A spokesperson for Mesa Redonda points out that they’ve been seeing an impact on their Christmas sales since early December because they’ve already faced another shutdown due to a carrier strike recently.

“The first week of December when this stop occurred carriers cargo, the port was paralyzed for four days, so the imported cargo could not be taken out, when it was taken out, a situation of political instability began,” he explained.

Given this situation, daily losses in Mesa Redonda are estimated at between $9 million and $10 million. It is estimated that $180 million has already been lost in the first two weeks of the month, and that figure is expected to increase by the end of the year.

“We had aircraft carrier strike before this unstable situation. So those two things are added and we estimate it will be a 40% (drop in sales), $350 million loss,” he says.

Merchants are affected not only by the final sale in Mesa Redonda, but also by shipping to stores in the provinces.

“We are natural product distributors throughout Peru. (Because of the road blockade) our clients they can’t come, we can’t even send the goods because the trucking doesn’t leave Lima,” he says.

Nazario recalls that provincial satellite markets account for roughly 50% to 60% of the sales made by Roundtable traders.

The representative of Mesa Redonda notes that due to this crisis, it is estimated that about 16,000 people will stop generating Positions.

“Mesa Redonda has a steady 70,000 workers, estimated to increase by 26,000 per campaign, but only for the November and December campaign. Now, in addition to not updating people who came to the Christmas campaign, there will be a reduction of at least 16 thousand jobs of 20%, we expect,” he explained.

In addition, he noted that in connection with the introduction of a state of emergency the shops because in order to prevent the protesters from entering, several blocks are closed, which prevents several enterprises from opening and operating normally.