Protests deprive the largest market in the capital of Panama of food

Trader Jel Morales ran out of merchandise to sell and his colleague Raúl Pineda is looking to transport vegetables by plane: protests against a mining contract are depriving the capital of Panama.

“Merca Panamá”, the wholesale market where 80% of the vegetables consumed in the capital are sold, looked almost deserted this Sunday, since “there is nothing left” of merchandise, according to sellers and buyers.

A week ago, trucks loaded with vegetables stopped arriving from the agricultural province of Chiriquí, bordering Costa Rica, due to protests and roadblocks demanding the cancellation of the contract for the largest copper mine in Central America, operated in the Caribbean. Panamanian by the Canadian First Quantum Minerals.

“The lack of supply is already being felt in Merca Panama, because they don’t let the trucks pass, because the town is in the street with the mining problem that exists,” merchant Raúl Martínez tells AFP.

The shortage has raised the prices of various vegetables by double and triple, according to traders.

For nine days, thousands of Panamanians have been marching daily to demand the annulment of the mining contract, approved by Congress on October 20 and promulgated the same day by President Laurentino Cortizo.

In an attempt to stop the protests, Cortizo banned new metal mining concessions on Friday, but maintained the contract with the Canadian company.

– “It’s going to get chaotic” –

Almost all stores remain closed in “Merca Panamá”, a center located on the outskirts of Panama City, which previously recorded sales of 1.2 million dollars a day.

In the “Galera Cerro Punta” only 12 of its 70 stores were open, AFP journalists observed. The situation was similar in the other three pavilions of the market, where there were few buyers.

“This may last for a week, but if a solution is not sought this is going to get chaotic and when there are feeding problems, other very difficult situations arise,” says Martínez.

“No vegetables have arrived” this week, “the last of them have already been taken out, there is nothing left here,” merchant Jel Morales told AFP.

Before the protests, hundreds of trucks arrived at the market every day loaded with vegetables, fruits and legumes.

Retailers, restaurants and hotels are the main clients of “Merca Panamá”, although there is also a gallery of retail stalls, where heads of families come to buy.

– Air Transport –

“Only trucks are arriving from Darién [provincia fronteriza con Colombia]whose production is low compared to Chiriquí,” merchant Raúl Pineda, who has more than 100 employees, tells AFP.

“The lettuce, tomato, and chili can’t last, they are being lost in the fields,” adds Pineda, who has quoted transporting vegetables by plane from Chiriquí to be able to supply his clients.

He explains that a small plane transports up to 2.5 tons of cargo at a price of three dollars per kilo, which would considerably raise the price of vegetables.

“Carrots, celery, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower disappeared here. What I have right now is practically for today, which are products from Darién,” says Edith Rodríguez, owner of a retail stand, on her side.

For now, only a few trucks loaded with vegetables arrive from Chiriquí and have avoided blockades by traveling on secondary dirt roads, according to merchants.

“Seven boxes of tomatoes arrived this morning,” Colombian merchant Andrés Martínez told AFP.

– Onions and potatoes from the USA –

“The situation is depressing, everything has gone up in price and the truth is that nothing can be found,” Ascanio Alberola, who went with his wife to buy at “Merca Panamá,” told AFP, following a “routine every Sunday.” ”.

“I’m afraid this is going to get worse” if the conflict is not resolved, adds the 40-year-old engineer.

The only products that for now are abundant in “Merca Panama” are onions and potatoes from the United States, since the Panamanian government had authorized their import due to a deficit in national production.

Merchants and market workers have suffered losses, as many of them earned their living by loading or unloading trucks, without a fixed salary.

This is the case of Patricio Valderrama, whom everyone calls “Cholato”, who this Sunday was patiently cleaning dozens of onions on the floor that a merchant gave him.

“Let’s see if I can get something for food for the [cuatro] Children, let’s see if I can recover something, because the street is hard today,” the 61-year-old worker told AFP.