WILLEMSTAD - With great excitement, Prime Minister Pisas and his colleagues received the first two Venezuelan fruit boats. Clearly, this signifies more life in Punda and creates a new tourist attraction. But beyond all of this, it represents a great relief for Venezuela, which is precisely the country that closed the border in a surprising manner. In light of this, the PIN Party asks: can the Pisas cabinet ensure the community that it will support local farmers with the same enthusiasm it has shown in bringing back the Venezuelan boats?
The PIN Party is content that, despite the Venezuelan government's border closure without any provocation, partners within the kingdom have continued to work towards normalizing relations. PIN also applauds the fact that, in addition to being a tourist attraction, the fruit boats offer an alternative for affordable fruits and vegetables.
However, it is important to realize that what the Venezuelan boat offers at a good price has been produced through extremely cheap labor, with subsidized fertilizers and vitamins, and transported by trucks and boats running on heavily subsidized diesel and gasoline. PIN asks: is it fair to demand that local farmers compete against this?
Furthermore, it is important for Curaçao to remember that every import poses a risk to our foreign exchange reserves. In the case of agriculture, it is often an unnecessary risk because we can produce much more from our own land and create local jobs, all while saving foreign exchange.
PIN supports an open economy, but PIN also supports balance. When PIN was responsible for agriculture, we doubled our local production, facilitated farmers through the Agricultural Fund, provided various free courses for modern agriculture, raised awareness in the community through the Kunukito program, and most importantly, we issued a ministerial decree to provide farmers with cheap water from Aqualectra. However, the current ministers have not yet signed that document.
These things lead PIN to ask the question: can the Pisas government demonstrate what significant measures it plans to take to support local farmers, as it eagerly facilitates the arrival of Venezuelan boats?
While we welcome the Venezuelan boats, their return should not leave local producers behind. The farming community and their families deserve assurance from Mr. Pisas, as the one in charge of agriculture in the health ministry, that he will at least follow through with the decree for cheap water, expand the agricultural fund, and make land available as intended.