Colombia’s Agriculture Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo said that the government is examining the idea of establishing emergency air points to carry food to the cities most adversely impacted by this winter’s harsh weather, Colombian media reported Wednesday.
Restrepo said that the proposal to move goods from one city to another in this manner is viable, considering the poor state of both principal and secondary roads in the country resulting from heavy rains, which is limiting the movement of much-needed food.
“The food items remain trapped and can’t be gotten out because there are no roads, because they have collapsed or fallen apart,” said Restrepo.
Despite the weather’s effect on both food production and distribution, the minister assured that, though it has not discarded the idea, the government is not yet considering the importation of goods.
Restrepo stated, “That decision has not been taken because we have not seen the necessity; the necessity is to fix the roads. It takes time to import things and we gain nothing because they arrive at the ports and also suffer the road crisis that national products suffer.”