The recession and loss of purchasing power hit popular consumption: in the last year and a half they closed 14,000 bakeries, production fell in half and the sale of invoices collapsed 85%. At the same time, the economy registered its second stronger contraction in 16 months.
The president of the Bakery Center of the Province of Buenos Aires, Martín Pinto, drew an alarming panorama on the Crisis of the Panadero sector and the impact of the recession. As detailed, in the last 18 months, 14,000 bakeries closed throughout the country, a reflection of a scenario in which “only six out of ten machines are lit” and the production was reduced by half.
“Producing in Argentina does it cost more and more. I am a baker and only use half of the machines,” he said in a dialogue with Radio Rivadavia. Pinto stressed that bread consumption, a key food that in many countries serves to measure poverty, fell 50% in the last year and a half.
ANDL Derumbe is even more pronounced in traditional products of the Argentine table such as invoices: “85% less are sold. Not even the dozen of the day before 50% discount is sold. Today the bakeries produce at the request, with two or three basic products, and the frosts are turned off because what is not sold is thrown,” he described.
With more than 30 years in the trade, Pinto says that bakeries today only produce 50% of what they could. “Before at the counter you had a great variety: breads, invoices, sandwiches. Today the reality is very different. We work with the fair and turn off equipment to save energy and avoid losses,” he said.
Bakeries, threatened by “clandestinity”
The panorama of economic activity
The crisis in the baker sector is part of a context of strong fall in consumption, Persistent inflation and recession, which fully impacts SMEs, responsible for much of the employment in Argentina. According to private estimates, In July the economy suffered its second more severe contraction in 16 months, Retrrowing 1% monthly, confirming that the recession deepens and that the reactivation still looks distant.
The Argentine economy showed signals of weakness in July, with a 1% contraction compared to the previous month, according to the General Activity Index (IGA) prepared by the consultancy Orlando Ferreres & Associates. HE It is about the second deepest monthly fall in the last 16 months, which shows the difficulties in sustaining recovery in 2025.
The report warns that the July decline was only surpassed by the fall registered in March this year, in the midst of the exchange instability that preceded the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In terms of activity level, the economy is only 0.3% above December 2024, reflecting the lack of dynamism to consolidate a path of sustained growth.
While the interannual comparison still yields a positive balance – with an advance of 3.6% compared to July 2024 -, it is the lowest increase since November last year, which reinforces the idea of a brake in the activity in recent months.
Source: Ambito
