The decision by the National Supply Company (Conab) to close 27 of the 92 units in its warehouse network in the five regions of Brazil worried debaters at a public hearing in the Chamber. The Agriculture, Livestock, Supply and Rural Development Committee held a public hearing on the subject this Tuesday (10).
The decision is part of a Conab modernization plan that began in 2016 and ended in 2018. According to critics, the aim is to privatize storage services under the excuse that the private sector can perform this function better than the public sector.
The Secretary of Agricultural Policy at the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag), Antonino Rovaris, criticizes the measure taken by Conab.
“What we are actually worried about is that this could be the beginning of the total privatization of Conab, which is what we are hearing behind the scenes in the government, and everything that is, let's say, unprofitable, is ready to be privatized.”
Modernization
Conab's storage superintendent, Stelito Assis, denied that the government's intention is to completely privatize the company. He recalled that what occurred was a process of reinvention and restructuring of Conab to adapt the company to the times of budgetary difficulties that the country is going through.
“On the contrary, we at Conab have noticed a very strong effort by the Ministry of Agriculture to maintain the company and modernize it. And this modernization will clearly ensure that price security programs continue to be used even better than they are today.”
The demobilization of warehouses occurs mostly in the Central-West region. According to Conab, the Northeast region was preserved.
Source: agrolink
