Paneleros announced a strike to protest against the economic crisis

In the guild of paneleros In Colombia, there are concerns after a union in the department of Santander make a report in which he advises that the final product is sold below the cost of production, what would be causing significant losses.

For example, heThe production of a kilo of brown sugar is 3,500 pesos, but at the market they would sell it for $2,400. “We have decided by mutual agreement to suspend the grindings due to the situation of the panelas. We are sad because we have not received the support of the national government, The situation is serious because they buy the product from us for $1,000 below what they should,” he said in NCR Radio Mariela Acuña de Chacón, panela producer in Guepsa.

So the union says it’s fair that earn at least a hundred or two hundred pesos above the total cost of production, are say, $3,700. The idea of ​​the strike of the millers would be to stop the production of the product, to sell what they have in the warehouses and to see if there is a lack of supply in the various companies of the country.

Also try to make a in-depth employee fee price analysis who work in the production of panela, because in many cases they would charge more than what is worked.

“The workers are paid a lot and they work half a day, we cannot continue to work like this and we are looking for an agreement with them, They only work five, but they charge eight,” Acuña de Chacón told RCN Radio.

In the same union accounts, there would be around 45,000 workers in Santander alone, while Nationally, there would be more than 300,000 employees who would be affected by the strike if it were to take place.

It is expected that thanks to the visibility of the problem in the face of the possible unemployment of the paneleros, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) Enter to review the price at which panela is sold per kilo in the country.

In mid-2022, the paneleros union had already warned of another problem and was panela flavored artificial sweeteners that were affecting the sale of the product.

In an interview with the Snail News experts have denounced that the company is “retreating”, especially in Santana, Boyacá, where the situation has been described as “critical”.

“We are producing today (…) selling panela at 2,900 pesos, 2,800 per kilo and production continues at 3,200 and rising, because agricultural inputs are exploding, they are very expensive and business is shrinking definitely,” he added. said Fernando Paipilla, president of Dignidad Agropecuaria, during his interview with the aforementioned media. According to union representatives, some 350,000 families have been affected by this, in addition, there has been a drop in the sale of panela by 40% or 50%. Of the 150 mills that exist in Santana, only 70 work.

During the days of the announced strike of the paneleros, Fedepanela issued a statement indicating the reasons why they would come out to protest. “Our objective as a trade union entity is to ensure and contribute to the development of the panela sub-sector in the country, supporting panela producers in the processes of modernization and development (…) Fedepanela approves the use of panela from Colombian producers in products that comply with current legal standards,” reads the letter made public.

Nixon Mora, vice president of the Dignidad Panelera movement, warned that companies were promoting their artificial panela products, so the purchase of the natural sweetener was drastically reduced. The expert referred, with their own names, to brands that promise to have “genuine panela” in their content.

“The concern is that there is 40% or 50% product, they add a little panela, pulverized panela and the rest is supplemented with a sweetener called aspartame, acesulfame and sucralose. Each of these three elements has 200 or 600 times more sweetness than sugar,” Mora said in an interview with Radio Blue.

It should be noted that, despite criticism and dissatisfaction, these products have the approval of Fedepanela. As the director of this entity, Carlos Mayorga, explains, the support exists because of the realization that they want to give to the objective of consuming more panela in Colombia. According to him, the consumption of this sweetener has been reduced in large quantities for 17 years.

“The National Federation of Panela Producers has a structure in 174 municipalities of the country, in 14 departments. By mandate of its board of directors, what was approved was that the panela that was used for the development of these products was the Colombian panela,” the union spokesperson said. he explained to the same station. This adds to the reasons why part of the sector decided to go on strike. This was explained by Denis Ariza, president of the Dignidad Panelera union, in an interview with Snail radio.