If you can get canned mushrooms, you have to think about exorbitant prices / Gonzalo Calvelo
The main ingredients of the most traditional Christmas dishes cost a fortune or directly (and for that reason) are not easily found in the gondolas. Presenting on the table this Christmas Eve a roll with hearts of palm, a vitel toné dish, or a mushroom tenderloin is quite an outburst, since these are classic preparations that these days disrupt any budget.
Shooting at numbers that shake common sense, hearts of palm, in any of its versions -whole or in pieces- reached exorbitant prices for these end-of-year festivities: in most neighborhood businesses in the Region they are conspicuous by their absence and Item sales platforms offer 800-gram cans at 3,300, 3,900 and up to 4,500 pesos. Of 2,900 pesos is the value of the format that is cut.
The panorama changes quite a bit in some branches of supermarket chains that, although they have very few units, charge no more than 1,400 pesos for an 800-gram can.
This difference in prices depending on the place where the hearts of palm are sold is explained in relation to the lack of availability in the market due, in part, to the latest increases in the blue dollar and the limitations that exist on imports (it is a food without production national that is cultivated in countries with a tropical climate such as Brazil, Paraguay and Ecuador). It happens that due to the scarcity of the product, the digital buying and selling pages price it through the roof.
The eggs stuffed with tuna, the vitel toné, or the pionono rolled with a paste of that same canned fish are not among the cheapest preparations either. It is true that the blue species of the sea has become more expensive month after month in recent times and that its price, on a permanent rise, is hardly surprising. For example, the 125 grams of the leading brand is available at no less than 650 pesos, while the largest container (200 grams) costs from 915 pesos. There are lower values from second and third companies, at 350, 400 or 450 for a small can, and within Fair Prices it is sold at 229 pesos.
Another price that hits the Christmas table is the one charged for mushrooms, a product that, although it has always been associated with the most refined cuisine, has not itself been very expensive and has long been included in special menus at almost any home, both for sauces that accompany meat or chicken or for fresh summer salads. In the days before these end of 2022 festivities, it climbed high, and according to the trade it is sold in a range that goes from 400 to 780 pesos.
There are also few jars of capers (the other basic ingredient, along with tuna and anchovies, of vitel toné) on the market. And if you find a container of those flower buds from a bush of the same name, you have to talk about something more than 700 pesos per 125 grams.
Fernando Savore, president of the Federation of Grocers of the Province of Buenos Aires, pointed out what happens with hearts of palm, one of the products most required by consumers at Christmas time. “We haven’t been finding them among wholesalers for months and in businesses that have always had a diversity of brands of this merchandise, now there are no large or small cans and neither whole nor pieces,” described the leader who, at the same time, remarked that ” We are experiencing the speculation of asking 3,000 pesos for a container and the problem is that there is always someone who buys when no one should buy a can at that price”.
From his neighborhood business, Ricardo Cuevas detailed the current reality: “in these nearby businesses, because of the prices, customers no longer ask for mushrooms, capers and hearts of palm,” he said.
According to the monitoring of prices this year carried out by Cuevas, “tuna was rising little by little; For example, a good quality loin brand in the middle of 2022 was 270 pesos and today we have to market it at 390 pesos.”
Likewise, the storekeeper offered his perception about the classic products most in demand these days. “Mushrooms, like hearts of palm, had about a 100 percent increase in one year, and anchovies up to 150 percent; The capers are already at crazy prices, between 550 and 590 pesos for the smallest bottle, ”he said.
Pineapple and peach, on the rise
For desserts (the typical fruit salad of the Fiestas) you have to think about cans of pineapple at 720 or 750 pesos, and peaches between 400 and 600 pesos.
