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EL SALVADOR: Poor Eating Less While Food Prices Soar

Raúl Gutiérrez

SAN SALVADOR, May 21 2008 (IPS) - Eating less is the only option left to the poorest of the poor in El Salvador, in the face of the steady rise in global food prices, which has had an impact on the domestic cost of staples like rice, beans, tortillas, milk, eggs and bread.

There is a serious food crisis in El Salvador, warn foreign experts, consumer defence activists and Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Humberto Luna, who described the outlook in this impoverished Central American nation as “bleak.”

Francisco García, a 29-year-old office worker, complained that “what I used to buy with 200 dollars now costs 300.”

“The money that bought a gallon of milk before only buys half a gallon now…we are eating less than we used to,” said García while waiting for a bus in downtown San Salvador.

Homemaker Gabriela Ortiz, 22, said her budget has increased “by 60 to 80 dollars a month” since the beginning of the year.

World Food Programme (WFP) representative in El Salvador Carlo Scaramella told IPS that the United Nations agency is carrying out a study to assess the projected impact of food inflation on the poorest sectors of the population in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Although the results are not in yet, which means “the effects cannot be described in detail,” it is possible to talk about what is already happening, which is that families have started to reorganise their budgets, he said.

“People have begun to have less access to food,” and their diets have gone down in quality, as a result of their shrinking buying power, said Scaramella.

He also pointed out that the situation in rural areas is especially serious, because every poor household is now “much poorer.”

“Today people can only afford half of what they could buy a year ago,” particularly in terms of maize, beans and rice, whose cost has risen twofold, said the U.N. official.

Statistics from the Consumer Defence Centre (CDC), based on information from government sources and from the Regional Council for Agricultural Cooperation (CORECA), indicate that the cost of a month’s worth of basic products for a family of four in rural areas climbed from 101 dollars to 123 dollars between April 2007 and March 2008, while the cost of the basic consumer basket went up from 140.5 to 160 dollars a month in urban areas.

The CDC also reported that in the year ending in January, the price of a pound of beans rose from 50 cents of a dollar to 84 cents, rice went up from 32 to 50 cents, and maize from 16 to 22 cents, while the price of milk rose from 95 cents to 1.03 dollars.

That is a major shock to family budgets, since food absorbs more than half of the incomes of the poorest households, according to the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES), a private think tank.

Experts blame the current global food shortages on the use of food crops – particularly maize – for the production of biofuels, the record high prices of oil and fertilisers, and the growing demand for food products in emerging powers like China and India.

These external factors have compounded the problems caused by the liberalisation of trade and dismantling of the agriculture sector – policies that began to be implemented in El Salvador in 1990 by the government of then president Alfredo Cristiani (1989-1994), under the argument that it was cheaper to import food than to produce it.

These policies destroyed the national agriculture industry, while companies involved in importing grains flourished, economist Raúl Moreno told IPS. “That was a fundamental error,” he said.

Ombudsman Luna said he has witnessed the “steady deterioration” of the living standards and food sovereignty and security of Salvadorans “with profound concern.”

He recommended that the government “decree a state of national emergency” and “take measures to address the crisis,” including the creation of a national commission aimed at helping the agriculture sector to recover, and the drafting of a law on food security.

Two weeks ago, the rightwing government of Antonio Saca established a multidisciplinary commission to formulate recommendations to deal with the crisis.

Saca said he would leave in place the subsidies for propane cooking gas and electricity, while promoting national production of food. But he added that people would have to “tighten their belts.”

The presidential agricultural commissioner, Carmen Elena Díaz, confirmed to IPS that the government would invest some 115 million dollars in “incentives for small farmers,” and would support them with the free distribution of 350,000 bags of fertilisers and improved maize seeds to boost yields.

Many analysts have said these measures are aimed at gaining support for the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance party, with an eye to next year’s elections.

Auxiliary Archbishop of San Salvador Gregorio Rosa Chávez complained that in his declarations, the president only referred to “external factors” in the crisis, while avoiding any mention of “the policies implemented in the country” which he said are also causes of “these ills.”

“An objective analysis points to the opposite: that the biggest problems are inside the country, and that this is what must be changed, because the rest certainly has a harsh effect, but it is not the key point,” said the bishop.

He also criticised the lack of representation of farmers on the multidisciplinary commission.

Back on the streets, 62-year-old retired bread factory worker Max Flores said shopkeepers are “speculating and taking advantage of their customers,” since there is no correlation between the rise in commodity prices and the retail prices of food.

Giorgina Díaz, 30, who is nine months pregnant, said it was “absurd” for Saca to urge people to “eat less.”