Monday, February 13, 2023 | 7:56 p.m.
The Minister of Economy Sergio Massa, and the Secretary of Commerce Matías Tombolini, presented this Monday a new program of controlled prices for seven popular cuts of meat. It will be a program that will make available to the public, throughout the country, 15,000 tons of meat per month at a price 30% lower than what is offered today on the market. The program will come into effect next Friday, and will run until March 31. “Why do we pay so much attention to meat? Because when we look at inflation in January we see that the most important blow is meat,” said Minister Massa, who also confirmed that the plan to reduce inflation continues, and promised to announce more measures for the micro economy in the coming days. “We are going to stabilize the Argentine economy to make it competitive, and so that the citizen does not suffer the saws that sometimes occur in the Argentine economy.
The Minister was in charge of the conceptual, the one who was in charge of giving specific details of the plan was the Secretary of Commerce Matías Tombolini, who began by assuring that “we have a problem with the price of meat, and we had to act with application tools possible, efficient and fast”. He explained that “after a negotiation, which is always a somewhat harsh process, we were able to reach an agreement that has two characteristics, price and volume. Order, predictability and avoidance of abuse.” The commitment is that 15,000 tons of seven barbecue cuts will be allocated, made available in supermarkets throughout the country. The monthly consumption of these cuts is 60,000 per month, so 25% of that is being offered with this plan.
Thus, from Friday, some supermarkets will be able to get the roast at $1,035 per kilo, the vacuum at $1,351 per kilo, the matamre at $1,310 per kilo, the brisket at $675 per kilo, the roast cover at $1,035 per kilo, the buttock at $1,375 per kilo and the shoulder at $1,113 per kilo. Tombolini explained that in order to control “the slaughterhouses must present an affidavit a week to verify compliance with price and volume. We need the meat, at these prices, to be in the gondola, and our challenge is that this is fulfilled as we agreed.” Finally, he expressed that from the national government “we work so that the salary allows us to buy, each month that passes, a little more.”
This program will work in supermarket chains, but there is also an option for butcher shops, which does not require business adhesion, but requires that purchases be made with Banco Nación debit cards, in which there will be a 35% refund for each purchase .
“We made the decision to attack short- and medium-term problems, without failing to see that we have as a long-term challenge to increase the volume of sales and production. But understanding that it is important to solve short-term problems by increasing supply and taking care of the pocket of the Argentines”, closed by saying Minister Massa.
The rise of meat
A recent report from the consultancy Labor Capital and Growth (LCG) revealed that the increase in meat began to be seen on shelves in the last seven days of January and pushed inflation for the month to a value close to 5.9%, while which, until the fourth week of last month, estimated that rate at 5.4%. It is because of the strong incidence that this food has in the basket. Far from stopping in January, the upward trend persists in February.
The main explanation is the increase in the price of meat in the Cañuelas Agricultural Market (MEG) whose transfer to prices, although it will be gradual, is a fact. In 2022, meat rose well below inflation, due to the drought: it increased 62% in Greater Buenos Aires, according to INDEC, against inflation of 94.8%. The speed of recovery of the lost will be marked by the limits imposed by internal demand or by price agreements.
The survey carried out by Fundación Mediterránea in the third week of January 2023 revealed that the average price of a basket of eight medium/high quality cuts in Argentina was $1,780 per kilo, compared to Brazil. However, in the survey carried out in the first week of February, this price had increased to $2,267 per kilogram, representing an increase of 27.3%, an average price 11.4% higher than Brazil’s.
Members of the slaughterhouse, meatpacking and butchery sectors warned that the price was far behind the acceleration in the values of the rest of the economy. It is worth remembering that during December 2022 meat did not have an impact on the inflation data within the food item, as did fruits and vegetables with significant increases of the order of 46%, with six products among the first twenty that registered the highest increases.
