The complex situation caused by the shortage of diesel has resulted that truckers who transport vegetables, fruits, legumes and other items from the fields to markets, having a very hard time and also losing their cargo as it takes very long time to transport produce from the west of the country to Monagas and other eastern states of Venezuela.
Correspondent lapatilla.1eye.us
After the elimination of the diesel subsidy, that now produce carriers must buy at “dollarized” service stations (at international prices and can only be paid in foreign currency). This directly translated into much higher expenses to refuel the trucks, apart from the long distances they must travel.
There are those who must invest up to 500 U.S. dollars in a round trip to cities like Barquisimeto and additionally they carry fuel canisters, since they assure that in the western part of the country they cannot get diesel fuel anywhere.
“Right now we are barely surviving because of the fuel prices. Here in the East at least it is possible to refuel, but in the Andes, Barquisimeto, Portuguesa, there is no fuel there. In order to make a trip, one must have at least three “pimpinas” (5 gallon jerrycans) to guarantee the return. Another thing is the poor state of the roads, which makes the trip longer. For example, on a road where there are bridges, if they fall, we spend up to a week stuck and the amount of merchandise that is lost is barbaric,” said Henry Molina, a vegetable carrier.
Likewise, Nicomedes Guilarte stated that he currently spends up to 1,000 liters of diesel to travel to Zulia (from the Andes), round trip.
He assures that it is necessary to bring “pimpinas”, since it is very difficult to go to that area of Venezuela and he loses merchandise such as guava, bananas, lettuce and tomatoes.
“We have had losses of up to 80%, because it takes three days to go to El Vigía to look for produce, but to that we must add the terrible state of the roads. One arrives here dumping rotten produce, and to top it off, the people in the market only let us work until it is 8:00 in the morning, while in other municipal markets they allow truckers to stay until noon,” Guilarte said.