In crisis, Sedeco and merchants denounce market abandonment (Video)

MEXICO CITY ( Proceso ).– Just a few months before the end of the current government's first year, merchants and producers in Mexico City reported a deterioration in their relationship with the Ministry of Economic Development (Sedeco).

Spokespersons for the Plural Movement of Public Market Merchants and the Union of Merchants and Producers of Nave Roja indicated that communication with the agency has weakened compared to previous administrations, despite the fact that these sectors represent a central part of the commercial chain that supplies food to the population.

Representatives from both sectors attributed this situation to the lack of experience of the head of Sedeco, Manola Zabalza, and other officials within the agency. They indicated that this condition has impacted coordination in programs and administrative processes, such as the Market Improvement Program, which involves resources from the agency and municipal governments, as well as addressing the needs of public markets and the producers who supply the Central Supply Center (Ceda).

In an interview, Edgar Mendieta, a member and spokesperson for the Plural Movement, considered that the agency's lack of capacity to build an effective communication channel with merchants also stems from the coordination maintained by Sedeco with central government officials, such as Undersecretary of Government Fadlala Akabani.

He firmly emphasized the importance of this department building a productive and healthy relationship with the city's merchants:

The thing is, the Ministry of Economic Development has a Food Supply and Distribution Directorate. That's where all of us who provide services to the public market or food supply are connected.

To put this into perspective, he explains that there are 340 markets in Mexico City, 200 concentrations, and more than a thousand open-air markets. There are 79,000 vendors in the markets alone: “Calculating those 79,000 stalls, based on a very meager gross sales figure of one thousand pesos, we're talking about 70 million pesos moving daily in public markets; a weekly figure of 553 million pesos, on which suppliers, distributors, transporters, cart drivers, and workers depend.”

Furthermore, Mendieta pointed out that the agency's obligations to public market vendors have not been met. To illustrate, she referred to the Market Improvement Program, in which the city government provides 60% of the resources and the mayor's offices provide the other 40%, the allocation of which is the responsibility of Sedeco.

This lack of experience, so to speak, has meant that to date they have not published this exercise, which has operating rules and many factors that must be met for this budget to be granted to a market.

The spokesperson warns that the delay in implementing this program has already been going on for a year, as the information gathering for allocating next year's resources should have already been completed, so the delay is significant: "That speaks to negligence."

He also recalled that merchants' discontent with Sedeco began on January 9, with the publication in the Official Gazette of the Guidelines for the Operation and Functioning of Public Markets, leading to blockades and marches throughout the Mexican capital.

The only contact they have had with Zabalza was when he went to the markets to "promote and speak in favor" of these guidelines. Since then, they have not received "the Guidelines for the Operation and Functioning of Public Markets."

Given the official's indifference, the merchants requested that their liaison with the authorities at the dialogue tables be the Secretary of Government, César Cravioto. They have also held talks with the Undersecretary of Government, Fadlala Akabani, during which they have witnessed disrespect from Sedeco officials, targeting the former head of the same department: "We are the ones affected by this lack of coordination."

Edgar Mendieta sent this editorial office a video ( see at the end of the text ) in which the head of the Supply Directorate, Edgar Torres, tells Akabani that "he is not in charge," while the merchants present demand respect for the current official of the Government Secretariat.

Producers also dissatisfied

Reynaldo Castañeda, president of the Union of Merchants and Producers of Nave Roja (Red Ship) in CEDA, believes that their relationship with Sedeco has deteriorated under this administration. During the previous six-year term, they managed to build an effective relationship with the liaisons they established during Akabani's administration, although they did not have direct communication with him.

Castañeda emphasized the role played by vegetable producers in the Mexican capital, as they are the ones who initiate the commercial chain that makes it possible to bring food to citizens' plates:

It's impossible that the official (Manola Zabalza) didn't want to see us. She sent a secretary there. She practically doesn't even know what the Central de Abasto is, so logically she's afraid to talk to us.

"We have no cleaning, no electricity, no security," the producer representative complains.

It also states that Sedeco delegates its responsibility to the general coordinator of Ceda, Mónica Pacheco Skidmore.

"They don't understand what it means to be a producer and the abuse we are subjected to. They don't understand that there may be a lack of street vendors, there may even be a lack of merchants, but without producers, everything stops."

Both Castañeda and Mendieta considered it a strategic mistake for the central government (led by Morena's Clara Brugada) to neglect the needs of merchants and producers.