Pandemic raising fruit and vegetable prices.

As supplies shrink  the prices  of fruit and vegetable  in  the main marketing centers of Panama are moving upward,

In recent weeks, the Merca Panamá Food Unit has seen a drop in the volume of certain products and a rise in prices, mainly onions; cabbage; cauliflower; lettuce, and fruit.

Yoris Morales, president of the Merca Panamá Merchants Association, said that there are three factors currently impacting prices:

“In the case of vegetables, what we eat today was sown in March, April and May, that is, the months when the pandemic just started. This caused many producers to stop planting due to the uncertainty in the market. Another point was the weather factor. In general, between the months of June and July, there is a change of season (from dry season to rainy season) which causes the planting to be damaged or the plants to die from physical stress. To a lesser extent, but also important, is that there was little availability of seeds, because practically all the seeds we sow in our fields come from outside and the pandemic blocked their entry, “said Morales.

In recent  weeks, one of the products that has increased the most in Merca Panamá is green or white cabbage (which is the most consumed) and the price is at a five year high impacting already hard hit low-income families.