The situation of the families of Madriz dedicated to the preparation and sale of donuts is getting worse, due to the fact that the raw material continues without falling in price. The option of raising the product only generates the drop in sales, decimated for several months ago.
In order to make this popular and exquisite product, the artisans have reduced their size, due to the high costs of corn, butter and other inputs, explained Vilma Martínez, who has had a donut workshop in the city of Somoto for 40 years. “It’s the first time we see everything so expensive,” she noted.
“Right now the prices have gone up because the supplies are very expensive, even the bags have gone up and what are we going to do? Nothing, because others are the ones who set the price of cheese and other inputs. We are all being harmed because we cannot make the donut bigger and we cannot make it more expensive because, who is going to buy us? Nobody. You have to adjust to all this,” said Martínez.
Related news: High price of cheese hits Rivens donut factories
The women who do this work every day in the city of Somoto and other municipalities in the department of Madriz indicated that every time customers arrive and see fewer donuts in the bag, they lament, even though they tell them that they understand them. “Customers know that we’re looking to survive and not hurt them,” she said.
The lack of manpower
Another problem that donut shops face is the lack of manpower. Most of the artisans have left the country when they see that things are not improving. The owners of workshops say that the few that remain are asking for more wages and they cannot pay more.
«We look for how to maintain sales. We are encouraging him to maintain our establishment because people cannot buy more expensive and those who come to leave us the raw material to make the donuts, tell us that everything is getting scarce, because few are sold and they have sent the raw material to El Salvador,” said a woman who has a donut shop in the city of Somoto.
In the department of Madriz, there are around 50 rosquilla workshops between the municipalities of Yalaguina and Somoto, where many female heads of household work, who are being affected by the decrease in their working days and earnings.
Tortillas also bad
The owners of tortilla shops are also affected by the rise in corn and firewood for the production of supplies that should not fail in homes in the northern region of the country.
The tortilla shops have also had to take measures to not stop working: they are giving out only 7 tortillas for 10 córdobas. The day laborers assured that if this continues as badly, for the next few months they would be giving only six because a quintal of corn started to cost 900 córdobas.
«Everything is very expensive and we cannot assume it all the time. Almost every Monday things go up. Some clients understand us, others do not, but that is what is happening, although we want to give cheaper, we cannot because we have nothing left,” lamented Aracely Umanzor, who has a tortilla business in the city of Somoto.
«At the rate we are going, we are no longer going to be able to eat tortillas, cheese is no longer eaten because of how expensive it is. We are wrong,” said a customer of the Umanzor tortilla shop.
By United Voices
