Coast farmers disagree with the government: the sector is not doing well

EcuadorNews:

The farmers from the Coast do not agree with the statements issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and the farmers from the highlands regarding the good moments lived by the guild.

The Deputy Minister of Livestock Santiago Torres has said that milk production, domestic consumption, and exports grew. Juan Pablo Grijalva, head of the Association of Cattle Stockbreeders of the Highlands, supports this thesis and believes that daily production will increase in 2018 to 11 million liters if considering the current production of 5.3 million liters.

But the president of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Second Zone (Coast) Rafael Guerrero disagrees: “Domestic consumption has not increased. The traffic lights on the labels and the bad information regarding the effects of milk on health made the consumption (per capita) of milk in Ecuador fall from 100 to 85 liters per person per year.

And that is precisely why he differs from Grijalva and Torres’ comments on doubling production. “If there is no increase in domestic consumption and dairy products are not exported, small farmers disappear will disappear.”

Sources:http://www.expreso.ec/economia/los-ganaderos-de-la-costa-discrepan-XA1354891