'Colombia does not rule out an increase in food prices due to the conflict in Ukraine': vice-president

During her speech at the inauguration of the Center for Research and Artificial Intelligence 'AudACia' at the Simon Bolivar University, in Barranquilla, the Vice President and Foreign Minister, Marta Lucia Ramírez, warned that Colombia could experience shortages and increases in food prices due to the invasion of Russia to Ukraine.

According to the senior official, although the conflict between the two European nations is apparently alien to Colombian territory, she stated that no country would escape the economic effects caused by the dispute between the two countries.

The vice-president explained that although it was believed that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would not affect Latin American countries, there is currently a shortage of agricultural inputs that, according to the senior official, is currently affecting small agro-industrial producers in Colombia.

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Next, the vice-president reiterated that she hopes that Colombia will be able to “escape what may become at a certain point in time a food shortage due to a war that was alien to us, but which is affecting us all.”

However, we must remember that in recent days the Proculturas Chamber of the National Association of Industrialists (Andi) assured that, for the time being, Colombia is not at risk of shortage of pesticides and fertilizers due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

According to the president of the Board of Procultures, Luis Fernando Martínez, the country currently has a large reserve of these inputs to guarantee crops throughout this year. However, he assured that the entity is working to avoid any type of shortage.

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The president of Procultivos added: “The industry is working so that every day all farmers in Colombia have the right to take care of the protection of each of their crops (...) there is no visualization of a shortage”, noting that the only particularities that could arise would be delays in logistics.

Marcelo Altieri, Vice President of the Board of Directors of Procultos, acknowledged that although the war in Ukraine has affected the supply of raw materials for fertilizers, he said that the entity has already established relations with suppliers from other countries to ensure the production of” fertilizers with total normality in Colombia”.

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