STORY: Peru’s food crisis grows amid soaring prices - FAO
TRT: 03’58”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: SPANISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATES SHOT: 24 and 28 Oct. 2022 (See shotlist below for details)
LOCATIONS: LIMA CAPITAL; CHORRILLOS shanty town, Lima; CANTA, Lima Province, PERU. (See shotlist below for details)
DATELINE: 15 Nov. 2022
Speakers:
SHOTLIST:
25 OCTOBER 2022, CHORRILLOS Town ship, LIMA, PERU
28 OCTOBER 2022, FAO Office, LIMA, PERU
25 OCTOBER 2022, CHORRILLOS Town ship, LIMA, PERU
ENGLISH translation: “Lately, it’s raising again. The number of meals we were giving had dropped to 50 a day, because the neighbors were doing better in terms of purchasing power. But lately, it’s been raising because the crisis is affecting a lot of people in the community. Take the vegetables; they are far too expensive. A kilogram of potatoes costs more than three Soles (0,80$), a liter of cooking oil, more than 12 Soles (3.15$).”
ENGLISH translation: “We don’t cook chicken every day. Sometimes, once, or twice a week, because we can’t, it would be out of our budget.”
27 OCTOBER 2022, WHOLESALE MARKET (Mercado de mayoristas), LIMA, PERU
28 OCTOBER 2022, FAO Office, LIMA, PERU
ENGLISH translation Fernando Castro Verastegui, Project coordinator, FAO Peru: “The soup kitchens were a citizen response to the food problem that had been going on since before COVID. We had rates of, for example, malnutrition and anemia that had stagnated. The economic, political, and environmental problems that we were already having were telling us that the food situation was at risk. When COVID came, this exploded.”
27 OCTOBER 2022, SURQUILLO AREA, LIMA, PERU
28 OCTOBER 2022, FAO Office, LIMA, PERU
ENGLISH translation Fernando Castro Verastegui, Project coordinator, FAO Peru: “In addition, the increase in prices that we are seeing, as a result of a series of phenomena that are taking place at a global level, especially the increase in fuel prices, supplies also as a result of the conflicts in Ukraine.”
24 OCTOBER 2022, CANTA, LIMA PROVINCE, PERU
Peru’s food crisis grows amid soaring prices
Half the population of the Andean country is suffering from food insecurity, twice as many as before the pandemic – FAO
Peru has become the most food insecure country in South America, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO.
Some 16.6 million people --more than half the population -- now find themselves without regular access to enough safe and nutritious food.
It's a shocking reversal for Peru, an upper middle-income country in the World Bank's rankings, that can grow all the food it needs.
According to a 2021 study of FAO, 51 per cent of the population is living in moderate food insecurity. “20 per cent of that group is in acute food insecurity, explains Fernando Castro Verastegui, Project coordinator at FAO Peru. That means people have reduced the quality of their diet or are eating less than they need.”
Poverty is to blame, says the Food and Agriculture Organization. The poverty rate this year is 25 per cent, meaning one in four Peruvians doesn’t have enough money to cover their basic food basket. Most people end up simply alleviating their hunger, but not eating adequate food with all the necessary nutrients, such as proteins. In parts of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest - known locally as the “Selva” region - up to 70 per cent of the population is anemic.
In the poor and dusty suburb of Chorrillos, one of Lima’s shanty towns overlooking the Pacific Ocean, women are busy behind the stove.
Among them, Jenny Rojas Chumbe, a community activist, president of the soup kitchen “Ayuda Social” (Social support).
When COVID-19 hit the country, sending millions home with no income, Jenny saw up close the urgent needs in her community and started collecting food to organize soup kitchens.
These “ollas comunes” - as they are known here - are getting donations from food banks as well as other organizations and individuals. From 220 daily meals at the peak of the pandemic, she is still serving about 100 a day today, even though many have gone back to work.
“The number of meals we were giving had dropped to 50 a day, because the neighbors were doing better in terms of purchasing power. But lately, it’s been raising because the crisis is affecting a lot of people. If you take the vegetables, they are far too expensive. A kilogram of potatoes costs more than three Soles (0,80$), a liter of cooking oil, more than 12 Soles (3.15$),” explains Jenny Rojas Chumbe.
Soaring potato prices have a real impact - and a powerful symbolic one in Peru: it is on the shores of Lake Titicaca that potatoes were first cultivated,.
As for meat, chicken is the main source of protein in Peru... for those who can afford it. As a matter of fact, Jenny Rojas Chumbe doesn’t cook chicken every day for her neighbors, “sometimes, once, or twice a week, because it would be out of our budget.”
Peru's annual inflation rate for 2022 remains above 8 per cent in the past months, its highest level in 24 years. Staples like wheat, rice, and cooking oil have more than doubled in price.
The soup kitchens were a citizen response to the food problem that had been going on since before COVID, explains Fernando Castro Verastegui. “We had rates of, for example, malnutrition and anemia that had stagnated. The economic, political, and environmental problems that we were already having were telling us that the food situation was at risk. When COVID came, this exploded.”
Peru was hit badly by COVID-19. It suffered the world’s highest mortality rate during the pandemic, as more than 0.65 percent of the population succumbed to the virus. In parallel, lockdowns increased unemployment.
Added to the post-COVID downturn, inflation, driven by the war in Ukraine, is weighing heavily on prospects for recovery. Peru is also “experiencing the increase in prices, says Mr Castro Verastegui, as a result of a series of phenomena that are taking place at a global level, especially the increase in fuel prices, supplies also as a result of the conflicts in Ukraine.”
In addition to the price hikes of food and energy, FAO points out, government mismanagement, dietary habits, and an over-reliance on imported food staples and fertilizers as further causes of Peru's food crisis.
Imported chemical fertilizers cost up to four times what they did a year ago, forcing farmers to reduce its use. This is likely to impact food production for the coming months and aggravate the situation.
Ends