Arepas are a staple in the diet of many Venezuelans. At least they used to be, before the recent economic crisis. According to Alejandro Puyana of NPR, the one food product that survived the colonization of the Spaniards is now booming everywhere in the world, except for Venezuela.
According to NPR, the average consumption of arepas by people in Venezuela came out to 750 arepas per person per year. That is about two arepas per day, which demonstrates the importance of this food to Venezuelans. However, the current economic crisis and corn shortages plaguing the South American country have slowly brought that number down by half. This is a troubling situation when you consider that Venezuelans lost an average of 19 pounds during 2016 due to food shortages.
If you want to read more about Alejandro Puyana’s take on the scarcity of arepas, tap here for his NPR article.
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