Paraguay: Potato and onion producers in the IX Department announce road closure due to lack of government response.
The Marketing Coordinating Board of the IX Department announced that on Monday, starting at 8:00 a.m., they would close the route connecting Paraguarí with Villarrica.

The strike was decided after the suspension of a key meeting scheduled for last Wednesday with President Santiago Peña Nieto to discuss better prices for potato and onion sales and the control of smuggling.
Amid a climate of tension, potato and onion producers from the IX Department, along with agricultural leaders, announced that they will close the Paraguarí–Villarrica route , near Ybytymí .
.The strike comes in response to the frustrated expectation of a possible meeting with President Santiago Peña Nieto , aimed at ensuring the marketing of their products, establishing fair prices, and more rigorous control of smuggling, union leader Heriberto Colmán reported .
The decision was made by the producers after President Peña Nieto’s failure to meet with them. " In a meeting with Governor Norma Zárate de Monges (ANR), three of us had agreed to go and meet with President Peña Nieto. However, the mayor of La Colmena, Sergio Galeano (ANR), was informed that the president had excused himself from meeting with the producers, claiming he was on a tour of the country," he stated.
According to Colmán, the meeting was supposed to be held when production was "halfway" through the harvest cycle. It was the key moment to define marketing conditions. The abrupt postponement exacerbates the discontent, as many producers already have tons of onions and potatoes stored awaiting buyers.
He added that "since the national authorities are not providing answers or making any commitments, we are going to block the Paraguarí-Villarrica highway in a peaceful demonstration, demanding that they listen to us," Colmán said.
Minimum demands and conditions
Among the main demands driving the measure are:
- Effective control of smuggling of imported agricultural products, which puts pressure on local prices.
- Protection of the Paraguayan domestic market , so that national production has priority over foreign goods.
- Guarantee of fair minimum prices that allow production costs to be covered.
- Formal commitment from the Government to defend national production by ensuring that those responsible for border control fulfill their duties.
Colmán and other leaders maintain that this is not a concession or an isolated demand, but rather a structural demand for fair treatment of domestic producers. They only requested that the market be freed up for domestic production for about two months, but this has not been achieved. Products continue to enter the country illegally, saturating the domestic market.
Fuente: Traducido por Argenpapa de: abc.com.py