Monterrey, NL.- One year after the federal government launched the Package Against Inflation and Famine (PACIC) to reduce the prices of 24 basic products, more than 70 percent of them have increased.
An analysis by Grupo Reforma, based on data from Profeco and the Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agrícolas (GCMA) for Monterrey, CDMX and Guadalajara, shows that in some products the increase reaches double digits.
Of the 24 products of this basic basket, in Monterrey 17 presented increases, 71 percent; in CDMX they were 18, 75 percent, and in Guadalajara 19, 79 percent.
The extreme case in Monterrey was that of beans, with an annual increase of 74 percent, followed by potatoes, with 63 percent.
On May 4, 2022, the Government launched the PACIC based on 16 strategies, including the application of zero tariffs to the import of basic products and inputs for the field and the participation of food companies to curb prices.
For Francisco Chapa Góngora, a member of the Corporate Practices Committee of the National Agricultural Council, the PACIC was overwhelmed by a drop in production as a result of climatic phenomena such as drought and frost, in addition to the increase in the cost of fertilizers and lack of financing for small and medium-sized companies in the agro.
“It’s not that PACIC has failed, rather it was exceeded because there is less supply to satisfy demand and that leads to prices tending to rise. In beans, for example, Zacatecas and Durango, which are the main producers, The drought hit them hard, and there are other important factors in potatoes as well.
“But in addition to the climatic factor, production dropped due to lack of working capital, high interest rates and lack of financing. With the extinction of Financiera Rural by the federal government, the problem could worsen further.”
Chapa Góngora, who is also the director of Agrojaba -the largest potato producer in Nuevo León-, explained that the price of this food has not only remained high, but is rising due to the lower supply coming from Sinaloa and Sonora, the largest producers in the country.
Francisco Chapa Miranda, Director of Operations for Agrojaba, explained that the lower production in the Pacific derives from a 10 percent drop in the planted area due to the high costs of the seed (which is the same potato) and fertilizers, which it is being combined with growth in demand, particularly from the potato processing industry.
“After Sinaloa and Sonora, there are no other states in the country that produce more potatoes than they do. Usually, the price of potatoes fell in March and April because the crops were overlapping, but this year it did not happen due to the drop in the planted area “, he detailed.
“Then it remained at a high price and there are no states that can compensate for the lower supply from the Pacific; then, due to a supply and demand effect, it will begin to rise gradually in these days in such a way that by June or July we will return to see the same high price levels that were from October to December of last year.
