The total amount of flowers dispatched for Mother's Day was satisfactory; probably exceeding previous years, albeit the fact that many farms in the Bogotá savanna experienced serious difficulties in transportation due to roadblocks by demonstrators, Export Association Asocolflores reports.
"While we had expected this situation to come to an end, it escalated turning worse, reaching other sectors of the savanna, and changing location constantly. Thus, it has been very difficult to transport cut flowers to the airport and treacherous for the employees to get to the farms where they work. Fortunately, mobility has improved since May 9 thanks to the presence of the public forces."
The main arguments of public discontent have mostly vanished since the formal withdrawal by the government of the tax reform proposal. "President Duque has opened formal dialogues seeking concertation. The news gives accounts of the use of brazen brutality by State forces. Although there are peaceful protesters, there is often presence of very violent and loutish groups vandalizing and restricting the freedom of others, closing traffic to the point of stopping even emergency vehicles transporting vaccines or sick people, causing death and hindering the struggle against COVID."
"And they shield themselves arguing human rights and the right to protest, which has never been denied. On the contrary, this has been used to condemn the public forces who are only trying to protect the citizens, to restore order, and to defend themselves."
Last week, most of the turmoil happened in the main cities: Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali. "Now, except for Cali, these cities are relatively calm, but barricades restricting traffic are now concentrated along the
country´s highways with the purpose of initiating a food shortage. Roadblocks are managed by just a few, mostly foreigners or people from other areas of the country. We have been constantly in contact with the government, the public forces, and our affiliates, seeking solutions and ways to mitigate the impact.
As of last week, Asocolflores has established direct communication with protest leaders in different areas. "It is sad to see that they don´t even know what they want, and sometimes they make ludicrous requests asking us to send our workers to the demonstrations. Fortunately, the situation in Antioquia is nearly back to normal. We know that this conflict landscape causes great anxiety in our customers and in all the distribution chain; nevertheless, we are doing everything in our power to solve this shortfall in the hope that sooner than later this foreboding situation will be solved and life will return to normality."
According to Asocolflores, exports from January to March 2021 increased 13% if compared with 2020 and 18% if compared with 2019. "During the first week of July, we will have the final figures
for May as our official sources release them."
Asocolflores