agriculture

Ñame growers predict shortage, price rise

The Asociación de Productores de Raíces y Tubérculos warns that a ñame shortage looms.

Prices for the two main ñame varieties grown nationally have hit all time highs at local markets.

LA PRENSA

ñame woes: Growers of the "baboso" and "diamond" varieties of ñame have cut back on production, as prices to cultivate the popular sancocho ingredient rose from $3,700 to $6,000 per hectare. 1028960

Although ñame, or yam, has long been a staple ingredient of Panamanian sancocho, consumers of the starchy tuber may be deterred by a recent increase in price owing to a cut in national production.

So warned Juvencio Pino, president of the Asociación de Productores de Raíces y Tubérculos in the province of Herrera, who explained that the number of hectares devoted to ñame cultivation dropped as a result of increased cost, which rose from $3,700 to $6,000 per hectare.

Pino, like other farmers in the region, depends on a drip irrigation system to ensure out-of-season harvests, but even so, he said increased overhead costs have made it difficult to meet demand.

"Last year we planted between 80 and 100 hectares," said Pino. "But this year we're talking about maybe sixty, which gives us reason to warn of a shortage of [ñame] in the coming months."

According to reports from the Instituto de Mercadeo Agropecuario (IMA), prices for the "baboso" variety of ñame reached $61.47 a quintal (1 quintal> 100 lbs) at the al Mercado Agrícola Central (MAC), an increase of $3.47 from this time last year. Exports of the "diamond" variety of ñame exports were also up, fetching $30.63 a quintal, a near 19 percent hike.

Consumers across the city are feeling the pinch as the price of name climbed over a dollar per pound.

Marco Moscoso, public relations director for the IMA, however, did not agree with predictions of a ñame shortage, because, as he described it, two other varieties of the tuber grown in the Darién have been well-received in the marketplace, where they sell for $27 or $28 a quintal.

The secretary general of the Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario, Mario Dominguez, said it was normal to see a decrease in the supply of ñame during the second half of the year and a subsequent price hike, two signs he took to indicate that current conditions represented "a cyclical situation."

"This issue will only be resolved if producers establish irrigation systems that will allow them to plant throughout the year and harvest even in summer," said Dominguez.

The "diamond" ñame accounts for 80 percent of the country´s ñame production, part of which is exported to the United States.