Returning from his trip to Portugal, President Petro announced, among other possible measures, that the Ara supermarket chain (which will open 230 new stores in the country in 2023) will source produce directly from Colombian farmers, bypassing the middlemen between the supermarket and the producer. Can buy
For economist Duvan Ramirez, it is a proposal that is reminiscent of the creation during the mandate of Carlos Lleras Restrepo of the Agricultural Marketing Institute (IDEMA), which was in charge of regulating the marketing of agricultural products. Broadly speaking, what Idema did was buy from manufacturers at profitable prices, and then sell, store, and sometimes export those products.
“At one time, Idema supermarkets were seen in the country, buying agricultural products from farmers at prices that guaranteed they would recover the cost of production. You can go to state supermarkets where you can even get imported food that the state has bought directly,” says Duvan Ramirez.
But, for the Economist, just Idema leaves some lessons about the limits of a proposal such as the one made by the President for the Jigsaw supermarket.
“The liquidation of Idema in 1994 was due to the fact that it had created losses for the state since 1973, due to the costs involved with storing crops and the difference in prices at which it was sold compared to the prices of food Was. Was bought.”, says the Economist.
For Duwan Ramirez, this accurately shows that middlemen cannot be removed from the food marketing chain so easily.
“I believe the President wants to get back on that a bit, but he is oblivious to the fundamental role middlemen play in the process. It is true that today the arbitration chain has become very long and it is reflected in this incident.” is that when farmers go to market “they christen the load” and set a price with which to sell bananas or papayas, for example”, he says.
But, academically, it cannot be ignored that mediation adds value to loads, as it serves important functions such as making foods such as potatoes or blackberries available in stores or collection sites.
“Keeping the product in the supply chain is something that has costs and cannot be ignored. For example, when one goes to Meta, farmers in the Lejanias region take the product to some collection centers, because their It is very difficult for them to carry their load to a big market place.
Therefore, the collection centers are an essential intermediary step: they take the product to the corabastos, and sometimes they work to mature the product, assuming their cost”, says Ramirez.
