He said that the institution has made a count and established with all propriety that there is a deficit in the harvest of cereals, in the case of corn, the losses are 545 thousand quintals, this is equivalent to 18% of what has been planted. For beans, the losses are 18 million, which is 15% of what was sown.

He said that from this august and the rest of the year there could be food shortages due to the fact that the country relies on imports to supply the local market.

CAMPO projects a production of 19 million 247 thousand quintals of cereals, including corn, beans, rice and sorghum. Luis Treminio affirms that the El Niño phenomenon is bringing great consequences and the institution registers that there will be a cereal production deficit in 2024 of 5 million 800 thousand quintals.

The situation for 2023 is complicated, according to the expert, because there will be a food crisis and if this continues in 2024 it could generate a national famine.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has mentioned that 3 million people are in food crisis and with the winter the situation will increase.

So far CAMPO assures that it has not been able to establish a dialogue with the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG), in which they seek to request the corresponding authorities to prioritize national production to guarantee food sovereignty.

One of the recommendations made by the institution is to stick to a strategic reserve, because El Salvador has the capacity to do so.

Translated by: A.M