The president of the National Society of Agriculture (SNA), Cristián Allendes, together with the main food unions in the country -Fedefruta, Asoex, Chile Carnes, Chile Alimentos and the Movimiento Unitario Campesino y Etnias de Chile- met with the Government to evaluate the impact of the truckers strike in the sector.

This is because today marks five days since the mobilizations of carriers began to protest the rise in fuel prices, which has led to blockades both on the country's main routes and in the ports of Valparaíso and San Antonio.

In this sense, the president of the SNA asked the truckers' unions to end the strike today, in order to avoid further disruptions in supply chains and delays in fruit shipments abroad.

«The truckers' strike is seriously affecting everything that is the production and delivery of food to all Chilean consumers, and especially also exports. November is a month in which exports of cherries, blueberries, and other fruits begin, and we must mobilize 5.000 containers per week and that is not happening today," said Allendes.

«The truckers' strike is seriously affecting everything that is the production and delivery of food to all Chilean consumers, and especially also exports. November is a month in which exports of cherries, blueberries, and other fruits begin, and we must mobilize 5.000 containers per week and that is not happening today," said Allendes.

"We need the truck drivers to stop their strike today, because they are going to seriously affect the entire production system, the supply to the supermarkets, the processing plants," he added.

In that sense, the SNA leader commented that this situation has also affected livestock and plantations. "Cattle, chickens, pigs are having problems getting food for their consumption, and everything that is currently northern vegetables is also being affected, it is arriving in smaller quantities and also late," he said. he.

After this, Allendes hardened his tone and stated "we are the ones who give the work to them - the truck drivers -, the entire production chain, and today due to quarrels between sectors we do not justify this strike at all, because we believe that the "The productive chain has been paying the higher costs of fuel, and we do stand in solidarity with the transporters on the issue of safety."

Asked about the effects on prices due to the risk of shortages, the representative of the agricultural sector maintained that "when there is little supply, demand will be the same, obviously prices will rise," adding that in this case "the productive chain does not "It has nothing to do with it, on the contrary, we are the most affected."

"We want to ask the truck drivers to urgently end this strike because they are also going to be seriously affected, because we are not going to accept that they hinder this more than they have already done, because the economic cost that they cause to "The entire system and Chile is very high," he concluded.

In terms of economic cost as a result of the mobilizations, he indicated that "more or less 5.000 weekly containers of fruit have to be exported per week, that is US$500 million."

In this regard, the head of the SNA stressed that in the case of exports "we have specific times to arrive with the products outside, the trust of buyers is also lost if it is not arrived at the times."

"The export system is prepared to do a good job, and we are still confident that we will arrive on time, because the markets also need these products and we work a full year to arrive with them," he added.

"If they do not end this strike today, the truth is that we, who are the ones who give them their salary, pay them their freight, are also going to take measures that are going to be drastic against them," concluded the president of the SNA.