Of all the alternatives that were announced last week about a national food company, the first that will materialize in the coming weeks is that of the Central Market. As it is a state company that already exists, called Central Marketing and Logistics, a state company, the initiative should not go through Congress. It is a company that already provides storage, transport and logistics services.
It was through this state company that the former Secretary of Domestic Trade, Paula Español, implemented the itinerant federal market, which as of July 2021 brought fresh food at affordable prices to different municipalities. In this case, the president of the Central Market, Nahuel Levaggiapproached Feletti with the proposal to use this company to apply a “forward purchase” policy, that is, where the agreed exchange is made on a date prior to the contract becoming effective.
To carry out this initiative, the Government will have to fund $650 million, according to estimates from the Central Market. In a first stage, it will be for the purchase of onions, tomatoes and potatoes, since they represent 40% of the consumption of vegetables. The proposal, with which Feletti agrees, is still under budget analysis. In any case, they assure that “this type of intervention occurs in other countries”, such as Brazil and Mexico.
What the state company of the Central Market will do is plan the times of the year when the “peaks” of demand occur. Before that moment, they will have already bought tons of vegetables so that, in times of greater volatility, they will go out and offer them at a lower price. In practice, it will be a financial instrument, because to encourage production it will seek to finance small producers and cooperatives. In any case, they cannot guarantee that it will result in a drop in prices, since the greatest volatility is explained by climatic phenomena.
In January, the seasonal category was the one that rose the most, climbing 9%. In February, fruits and vegetables will once again lead monthly food inflation. Only in the third week of February, vegetables rose 2.8%, according to the weekly LCG survey, which is directed by the economist Guido Lawrence. Meanwhile, the average data for the last four weeks shows that vegetables rose 14.9% and fruits 7.7%, being the food categories that rose the most, well above beverages, dairy or meat.
Meanwhile, the creation of a state food company, to carry out from production to industrialization, is a bill that the senator from Río Negro, Martin Donateit reached Robert Feletti in December, and had the endorsement of the Ministry of Commerce, an agency that would be in charge of the company, according to the draft. It seeks to create the company “Alimentos Argentina”, and since it is the creation of a public company, it must be approved by Congress, as established by law 25,152.
The company would be in the hands of the national state and the provinces, would need a capital contribution of $900 million, and could even export, according to Ámbito’s announcement last week. As a bill could be blocked by the opposition, the Government looks closely at SMEs and existing provincial cooperatives to ally. As an example, they closely follow the work of companies such as Sol Puntano, from San Luis, La Overita, in Tucumán, Mejor Riojanas, from La Rioja or Nutrifor, in Formosa.
Source: Ambito
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