Potatoes weigh much less on household production and consumption, but the mumps crisis reflects the causes of the economic crisis.
The pathetic scenes of peasants from the Cundiboyacense plateau wrapped in their ruanas to protect themselves from the paramune cold and shouldering their potato lumps to go out on the roads and sell them at any price, are not only a symbol and summary of the situation of small agricultural producers in Colombia, but also an indicator of what is happening in the economy as a whole.
In the 1960s, before all the statistical instruments available today to measure and try to anticipate price variation were had, economists began to use the price of potatoes as an early indicator of inflation.
The food group weighed heavily on the family basket, and potato price cycles determined variations in this component of the CPI. Half a century later, potatoes much less on household production and consumption, but the mumps crisis reflects the causes and characteristics of the pandemic economic crisis. The price of potatoes has plummeted from about 50,000 to 10,000 pesos per package, a value that does not cover a third of production costs. The causes? The same ones that are affecting many sectors of the economy: a large drop in domestic demand, increased imports and export difficulties.
Domestic demand has plummeted, partly because of the closure of hotels and restaurants representing about 30% of tuber purchases; lower potato consumption reflects the decline in economic activity, with its direct consequence of job losses.
Potato consumption in households has also fallen. It is not that Colombians have decided to diet and decrease carbohydrate intake, but that they have no income to buy the market and are going physically hungry. During the pandemic, a third of households are making a meal less than before, and potato is an essential ingredient of the Colombian menu.
In terms of imports, as a result of FTA they have grown rapidly from 8,981 tonnes in 2009 to 58,616 tonnes in 2019, mainly from processed and dumped product from European countries. As the opening in Colombia went in and there has been no real promotion policy, potato exports reaching 22,000 tonnes in 2009 plummeted to just 1,680 last year. The pope’s trade balance is negative at $55 million.
Violeta Parra, the great Chilean folklorist, stood in a verse this situation common to all of South America: “The pope sells it to us several nations / when from southern Chile it is originally”. The reason for this tragedy tells her at the end of her song: “In the midst of malls of delight / Chile limits to the center of injustice”.
