- Title: BOLIVIA: Food vendors on strike over government subsidies
- Date: 11th February 2011
- Summary: EL ALTO, BOLIVIA (FEBRUARY 10, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LEADER OF GROCERS FROM LA PAZ, ROBERTO VILLENES, SAYING: "We don't want to be like Cuba and even less like Venezuela. We want to express ourselves freely. We don't want to be subject to the government. We want to be free and don't want to have to by products with tokens. We want them to let us, the smal
- Embargoed: 26th February 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Bolivia, Plurinational State Of
- Country: Bolivia
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA30JI04CSXHFAH9UGV386JCG4R
- Story Text: Food vendors say the government is in direct competition with them and demand the closure of a program that provides reduced prices for food staples for consumers.
Thousands took to the streets of Bolivia on Thursday (February 10) to protest the lack of food, rising food costs and the government's EMAPA (Company to Support Food Production) food program which grocers say is competing with food sellers, stifling production and the main cause behind food shortages.
The roadway leading to the country's main Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz was blocked by food vendors who say the government has become an unfair competitor to the thousands who work in the food distribution industry.
Airline passengers and workers alike had to traverse the multitude of protesters by foot, stepping over them while carrying their luggage in hopes of catching their flights.
Two years ago, the government created the Company to Support Food Production, known by its Spanish acronym EMAPA, to sell foodstuffs directly to consumers at subsidized prices while also eliminating the cost of an intermediate seller, or 'middleman.' Through the program, the government has been importing staples like sugar, flour, and rice that Bolivia had previously exported for decades and selling it to citizens at prices lower than what local food vendors can match.
Grocers and food sellers across the country have gone on strike to demand the government leave the food business and "let them get back to work."
President Evo Morales and Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera were in the city of Oruro to mark the 230th anniversary of the founding of the historic city.
The country's powerful and largest trade union, the Bolivian's Workers Central group, known as the COB, led a massive march outside the Plaza de Armas where the ceremony was being held.
The COB protested a lack of food and the dramatic rise in food costs in recent months.
The price of sugar, for example, doubled in one month's time, while other foods are up from five to 40 percent since January.
The demonstration forced the president and his committee to call short their activities at the anniversary celebration.
"The government is not going to take part in the parade. It does not want to respond to this type of shameful provocations," said presidential spokesperson, Iva Canelas.
With the support of the COB, an umbrella organization that covers all of Bolivia's trade unions including mining, energy and manufacturing industries, grocers were emboldened in their demands that the EMAPA be shutdown.
"We don't want to be like Cuba and even less like Venezuela. We want to express ourselves freely. We don't want to be subject to the government. We want to be free and don't want to have to buy products with tokens. We want them to let us, the small food merchants, work," said the leader representing La Paz grocers, Roberto Villenes.
Signs in grocery stores around the country reflect their demands that the EMAPA centers close.
Grocers complained that they were suffering under the program as consumers wait for hours in long lines at EMAPA locations to buy at the governments reduced prices instead of shopping in their stores.
In El Alto, outside La Paz, they took their message directly to the EMAPA in a demonstration outside the doors of one of the centers which was protected by police.
A small group of EMAPA supporters shouted back at the protesters, but the mood on the street was strongly opposed to the government program which many now blame for soaring prices.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has said measures taken by the government just a few years ago to control inflation are now adding to it in a boomerang effect that has backfired.
The FAO said not enough was done to support local producers after historic floods devastated the industry in 2006 and 2008.
What the national government did was prohibit the exportation of food and controlled the production of cooking oils.
After three years of state influence, producers say the industry is no longer profitable forcing prices up as the state imports foods once heavily exported.
Demonstrators like this man holding a sign that reads, "Evo [Morales], my brother, dedicate yourself to the presidency, not business" are telling the government to leave the food industry to the producers and distributors. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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