Following concessions of the government over increased financial support for one of Colombia’s most iconic economic sectors, coffee growers on Saturday have agreed to lift a strike and roadblocks that had paralyzed parts of the country, said local media.
The growers had been on strike since Monday to demand more government support. According to the strikers and Colombia’s coffee growers federation, inflated coffee prices and an expensive peso is forcing the coffee producers to sell their beans below production cost.
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The deal followed a tweet by President Juan Manuel Santos who said Friday he had ordered his finance and agriculture ministers to convoke a meeting and increase financial aid for the farmers who say that because of the coffee prices and peso they are forced to sell their beans below cost price. According to the striking coffee growers, the current subsidies are not sufficient to compensate the losses.
The presidential concession came after talks between the government and strikers were suspended earlier Friday.
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The lifting of the strike was announced by Santos while in the western Colombian Bahia Solano municipality for his weekly public appearance. The claim was not immediately confirmed by coffee growing federation Fedecafe and the strikers who took to the streets without the support of their federation.