Three weeks of heavy rains have wiped out farms and paralyzed business in Cerro Punta, Chiriquí, Panama’s principal vegetable-producing region, causing shortages in markets throughout the country.
Last Tuesday, trucks from the Rey supermarket chain rambled through Cerro Punta in search of lettuce, one of the crops damaged by flooding.
“The situation is difficult,” said Virgil Saldaña, president of the Asociación de Productores de Tierras Altas, adding that the crops in scarcest supply at the moment are onion and lettuce and warning that potatoes are next.
What can be found in Cerro Punta’s warehouses are carrots and celery, which are more resistant to rain.
“Growers are wary of revealing the extent of their losses, but as a reference point…one hectare of onions or potatoes can cost between $12,000 and $16,000,” said Saldaña.
Crop losses in Cerro Punta have had an effect on the government’s Compita food program. The Instituto de Mercadeo Agropecuario (IMA) wanted to buy onions, but farmers said they didn’t have enough.
Producers could pledge to deliver only 10,000 quintals (1 quintal = 100 pounds) of potatoes this month, at $30 a quintal, and said they wouldn’t have any come July.
At the headquarters of Asociación de Productores, producers can post the amount of potatoes they have to sell to the IMA, but as of yesterday few reported having anything to offer.
Although many farmers have been able to salvage some crops and others are starting to replant their fields, the Asociación cannot predict when the situation will return to normal, since the rains continue to fall.
Antonio Acosta, a local farmer, said that many producers are considering other work because farming is no longer profitable.
