There is no news of food shortages, says minister

In a press conference at Palácio do Planalto, minister Tereza Cristina said today (1st) that the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply has been working, since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic in Brazil, to guarantee the supply, production and distribution of food in the country. According to her, there is no news of food shortages in any city.

“Today we have supplies in Brazil in all capitals and all cities, we have no news that any type of food is missing from supermarket shelves or sales. This is the Ministry’s mission today,” he said.

According to her, Mapa is also concerned about the situation of small producers and is guiding associations and companies to answer questions and guarantee safety for workers in the sector. On another front, she said she has been working in partnership with Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, to guarantee the transport of products from the agricultural sector.

“We need this category so that the food leaves the gates, arrives at the warehouses and then goes to the factories, to the agro-processing industries and is transformed into food and reaches the supermarket shelves so that we can give Brazilians peace of mind. so that there is no commotion. This, thank God, is happening.”

Tereza Cristina highlighted the importance of rural producers at this time. “We have doctors, who do the work on the front line, taking care of the sick, and we have producers who are producing and we have to distribute so that this food reaches the supermarkets so that the population who is at home today has peace of mind when they need food. , the shelves are stocked.”

The minister also said that the Ministry of Agriculture is monitoring food prices, which may vary weekly due to logistical issues. “We have been checking, monitoring, but we will have to be very calm at this time. What we have done is to check whether there really is a need to have this price increase or not, in a monitoring office that the Ministry set up”.

The minister also cited the provision of 84 Mapa laboratories and Embrapa to help with the analysis of Coronavirus tests.