Ghost Markets of Caracas: “Food is so expensive Venezuelans can barely afford to eat”

In a country suffering from what is considered the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, Venezuela’s pain reaches a new order of magnitude as Caracas’ food markets turn into ghost towns.

In Guaicaipuro, near the city center, the long aisles of stalls seem to stretch endlessly with barely a single shopper in sight. In Quinta Crespo, the food vendors are in desperate need of attention, yelling at each other every time someone walks by. At the San Martín market, in the western part of the city, some stalls are closed, while others have so little food that they could well have closed too.. Others have decent supplies, but high prices keep prospects away. Business is so tight that some street vendors don’t even bother to sit at their stalls, playing on their phones, with no waits for the day.

Despite emerging signs that the Venezuelan economy may have bottomed out, the green shoots add to decades of a growing gap between rich and poor that still leaves millions of people in the country extremely vulnerable. The empty markets of Caracas are one of the most impressive examples of this gap, as access to fresh and affordable food is reduced.

There is no shortage of causes behind the igalloping food inflation in the country, but the most acute problem now is the fuel shortage which made the problems worse.

In Venezuela, where the world’s largest oil reserves are located, fuel shortages have become so acute that they have crippled the economy, forced factories to close and left drivers standing in line for hours to fill their tanks. The tightening of US sanctions has strangled supplies from abroad, and now the lack of diesel is hampering almost every aspect of the food supply chain.

Farmers do not have enough fuel to use the machines they need to plant and maintain their crops. The little that is grown in the far west of the Andes, the heart of production, must be trucked for 12 hours or more to the capital. Fuel is so expensive that transport costs alone can drive up the price of vegetables by 200%, said Gerson Pabón, director of Fedeagro, a large association of food producers.

By the time spinach or potato shipments reach stalls like the one owned by Roberto Fernández in the Quinta Crespo market, the prices are so high that its customers can barely afford to eat.

“People were buying by the kilo. Now they only take two or three items, ”says Fernández, He adds that his sales have been cut in half this year. “The drop in consumption masks the drop in food supply ”.

To the pain is added the occasional dollarization of the local economy. While this has theoretically helped keep inflation under control, it’s not much of a relief for the country’s poorest, who mainly have access to the bolivar, which has continued its huge downward spiral.

The country’s oil ministry and food ministry did not respond to requests for comment sent through the information ministry.

A kilo of tomatoes can reach $ 1.50. Potatoes and carrots cost about the same, while peppers can cost close to $ 2. That’s a huge cost when you consider that the average worker earns around $ 55.50 a month, according to a February report by local analytics firm Anova, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank. During, retirees, regular customers of municipal food markets, receive a monthly allowance equivalent to less than $ 3.

Seven years of economic collapse have plunged Venezuela down a painful path of dysfunction and disorder. Hunger is so widespread in this once rich country that the country is on the verge of total famine, the United Nations World Food Program has warned. The fallout from Covid-19 pushed the problem well beyond 2019 levels, when some 9.3 million Venezuelans did not have enough to eat, the group said.

Until now, Caracas was often sheltered from the worst of the crisis. The capital markets were like little islands of respite, providing the poor and the working class with fresh produce, meat and dairy products. Now that last relief sanctuary is disappearing amid the spiral of food inflation.

Marisol Méndez spent a Wednesday morning in the San Martín market looking for vegetables. As the economy has dollarized over the past year, his salary, a mix of greenbacks and bolivars, has allowed him to buy less and less in the market where he has been buying for 28 years. He bought tomatoes and potatoes, two kilos each time. Now you are in luck if you come home with a pound. That day, he left empty-handed.

“I practically gave up meat, cold cuts and dairy products. I buy a lot less vegetables. Vegetables are expensive here, ”explains Méndez, 60, manager of a food distribution company that supplies some of the market stalls.

Instead of fresh food, many Caracas residents turn to a mix of carbohydrates and processed foods to avoid hunger.

“The Venezuelan diet is very monotonous,” explains Marianella Herrera, nutritionist and professor at the Center for Development Studies at Central University. “We are creating a breeding ground for chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, poverty-related obesity and food insecurity, and even some types of cancer.

Of course, the situation is different for the wealthy, who often earn dollars or receive remittances from relatives abroad. The wealthiest and trendiest in town can visit luxury grocery stores, where the shelves are crowded, and they also find a way to refuel.

But for the poor, food inflation hits hard. In May alone, the cost of food increased by 22%, while the prices of fruits and vegetables have increased by 31%, according to the research group Cenda de Caracas. However, even the acceleration of prices to this level is weaker than in the past. A year earlier, food prices had climbed nearly 30%, while in May 2018, they were up 84% from the previous month.

In a recent and unusual interview, Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela’s Petroleum Minister, said fuel queues would disappear when the country’s crude production quadrupled by the end of the year. But this view is so optimistic it’s hard to believe, especially when the country faces some of the toughest economic sanctions ever imposed.

Diesel shortages mean food production in the Andean region has fallen 85% this year, according to Pabón de Fedeagro. Trucks that transport the produce are often forced to pay for fuel on the black market, where carriers typically spend $ 11 per gallon ($ 3 per liter). This cost becomes even more enormous when it comes to calculating in bolivars.

“The wholesale market suppliers say they pay for diesel in US dollars, so they charge us in dollars,” said Luisa Hidalgo, 68, who runs a food stall in the San Martín market. Their products have been reduced to bananas and sweet peppers. But it could be worse.

“We don’t get a lot of money in this part of town,” he said. “That’s why my neighbor closed. He couldn’t afford to refuel. “

With information from Bloomberg

KEEP READING: