The Closure on the Pan-American Highway complete five days after the collapse presented at kilometer 75 that has left the department of Nariño away from the rest of the Nation.
This impact on the road that connects from Ecuador to the center of the country has not only affected the department, but has frozen both export and import foreign trade activities and has left more than 6,000 cargo trucks dammed. with merchandise.
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With this eventuality, the Transportation portfolio has determined as an alternate route the Pasto – Mocoa – Popayán road to continue carrying essential products and supply the entire region. However, transport through «the springboard of death» as Fedetrascarga calls it, brings impacts to the economy such as cost overruns. In addition, the Federation alleges that this route is «unsafe» and does not have the capacity for articulated vehicles (tractomulas).
«Pre-emergency freight for two-axle rigid vehicles, with a maximum load capacity of 10 tons from Bogotá to Pasto, was determined at an average of $2,300,000 on the Mocoa route, today this same route has a freight cost of $4,000,000, in the same way the Ipiales – Cali route for the same vehicle configuration prior to the emergency had a freight of $1,200,000, today they are paying up to $5,300,000”, says the Federation.
With all this situation, the cargo transport sector is at a crossroads, and according to Enrique CardenasThe union’s president estimates that per day the sector is losing close to $20,000 million in freight in this area.
How are the prices?
These impacts on the carriers’ pocket have imminently affected the final price of the products, and this, added to inflation, is becoming a formula for uncertainty in Nariño homes.
According to José Stalin Rojas, director of the Logistics and Mobility Observatory of the National University, «the chains of the dairy sector, of agricultural products consumed by households in the south-western areas of Colombia (Cauca-Nariño) (… ) when the flow of merchandise is interrupted, alternative routes are explored that take longer and are more expensive, which causes an increase in the price of agricultural products”, he points out.
It is worth remembering that a large number of essential products for the region are mobilized in this road artery. In the period from January to November 2022, 1.62 million tons of corn, 2.38 million tons of sugar, 2 million tons of wheat, 1.60 million gallons of diesel, 814,357 gallons of soybean oil and 1.91 million gallons of fuel. In addition, 364,000 liters of milk are mobilized daily, according to fedetrascargabased on reports from the RNDC.
To date, the Ministry of Transportation and the unions are working to reactivate cargo transit, therefore, they are evaluating the Buenaventura-Tumaco route for the movement of merchandise.
PAULA GALEANO BALAGUERA
