“It will be crucial to convene the entire production chain (…). We hope that at this meeting there can be a democratic, healthy debate, that we have answers that, first, allow us to lift the export restrictions,” said the Vice Minister of Defense of User and Consumer Rights, Jorge Silva, in comments to the press. He added that the intention is to debate and make transparent information on the production, delivery, and supply to the domestic market in the face of the lack of this food and the increase in its prices.

Silva also said that the Executive Branch is not against non-producing businessmen who want to export, but rather that it fulfills the duty of meeting the demand and guaranteeing the supply of the population.

The Vice Minister reported that the official price of a liter of cooking oil sold in the national territory by the state-owned Food Production Support Company is 11 bolivianos (1.57 dollars); however, in neighboring countries, the price reaches 30 bolivianos (more than four dollars).

Last week, the Bolivian government temporarily suspended exports of cooking oil until the supply in the domestic market was normalized and instructed that control in the marketing chain be strengthened.

Regarding the artificial shortage of cooking oil in the domestic market, the Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, warned that demand represents less than 20 percent of total production, and denounced that there are “sabotage and shortage operations” with something as sensitive as the food security of Bolivian families.

She emphasized that “(…) some unscrupulous people, unfortunately, for political or economic interests, hide the product to wait for the price to rise and earn more at the cost of harming the population.”

Prada confirmed the point of view that there is an “economic war” related to “sabotage and shortage operations” that are not accidental and also respond to a strategy of erosioning the country at a political level.

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