Government rice imports are wiping out domestic rice farmers in El Salvador

The rice sector, both farmers and industrialists, are desperate due to the crisis they are experiencing because, on the one hand, the former have been demanding payment for the harvest that they sold to the industrialists who operate the mills for almost nine months; and on the other hand, the industrialists are worried because they do not sell the rice. As reported by the president of the Salvadoran Association of Rice Processors (Asalbar), Javier Navas, this rice crisis began last year when the former Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Pablo Anliker, imposed the price of a quintal of rice at $ 20 and became more acute. with imports of grain and other foods that the government has made instead of buying from nationals. “This big problem is called the Government's Health Emergency Program. The big problem is that the rice they are giving away is imported, from Mexico or Guatemala, but it is not local. If that rice, the government had bought it from the national industries, ...