Concern Over Sugar Smuggling

[Judi Lynn]

martes 27 de abril de 2010 Page One Daily News
ECUADOR - Concern Over Sugar Smuggling


Concern Over Sugar Smuggling

Producers said today that smuggling sugar through neighboring Colombia, and the speculation it generates, is causing a partial sugar shortage

According to Ecuador's Sugar Federation, some 70,000 50 kg sacks of sugar are smuggled monthly along the Colombian border leading to price speculation on the local market. "There is heavy sugar flight along the border, as well as that of gas. The refineries are not police and they cannot control that since they only sell their product to wholesalers and merchants," said Miguel Perez, chairman of the association. The director said that while a sack of sugar costs $34 in Ecuador, in Colombia it costs $48.

http://www.poder360.com/dailynews_detail.php?blurbid=7030#ixzz0mJyt64Sv

~~~~~
Clearly this problem with Colombia doesn't happen only with Venezuela.

[naaman fletcher]

1. I don't understand..

Which was is the sugar gong, from ecuador to colombia?

[Bacchus39]

2. it sounds like it is going from Ecuador to Colombia n/t

s

[protocol rv]

3. Easy arbitrage provided by price controls

It's a simple issue. The border is full of people who play arbitrage with whatever they can. If an Ecuadorean can make $12 moving 50 kg of sugar to Colombia, why not do it? Say you get a 20 ton truck over the border, that's 20,000 kilos. 400 sacks, at $12 a sack. $4800 for a 20 km drive across the border. Venezuelan gasoline is smuggled to Colombia by the beaker if necessary, because in Venezuela gasoline is nearly free. They got "fishing boats" with false bottoms they fill with gasoline. And it wouldn't surprise me if some day they find a gasoline pipeline going across the border taking thousands of liters per day.The problem really isn't with Colombia, it's with countries with price controls.

[Bacchus39]

4. yep, I hear ya

the OP said it is a "problem with Colombia". So essentially the "problem" is that Colombians want to buy the sugar at a lower rate than generally available, and Ecuatorianos want to sell at a higher rate than they generally receive in Ecuador. For the OP, that is a "problem".

[protocol rv]

5. It's hard to reason with communists

They have religion. I try to explain to them most of what happens is based on our genes, and we're wired in a certain way, with certain behaviors, which up until now have implied survival, reproductive advantage, and so on. They have a very touchy feely way of looking at homo sapiens, and the universe at large. I've advised graduate students who understood the simple principles involved, but if they had a chavista professor as their academic advisor, then we had grating sounds. I've even had students present very high quality theses who had trouble getting them accepted, or were denied for publishing, because even the independent universities are starting to fear the communists, so they'd rather not push the envelope. This reminds me of Spain under the Catholic Church's Inquisition, god save you if you were a jew. And today, as Venezuela evolves, those of us who are more rational and pragmatic, we're the jews. Eventually, we'll have to leave, or we'll be burned alive.