However, they suspended the force measure before the Government’s confirmation that there will be new measures to stop the rise in the price of bread. Raul Santoandre, president of the Bakery Federation of the province of Buenos Aires, assured Ámbito that they maintain the agreed price. However, within Faipa other leaders commented quietly that they can no longer meet the price of up to $220. In most bakeries it is sold between $240 and $260, and in some it was found for up to $320. “If costs continue to rise, there will be increases,” Santoandré anticipated.
The measure that the Government will take could have the same logic as the trust fund, in which exporters subsidize the domestic market. However, this time it will not be managed by the private sector, as happened with wheat and oil. What will remain is that the funds to finance the measure will come from the export sector. The measure is being worked on by the Ministry of Agriculture with the Secretary of Domestic Trade.
As this newspaper learned, The decision to close exports for soybean oil and flour will end with an increase of 2 points in withholdings for these products, taking them from 31% to 33%, as is the case with soybeans. Estimates within the agricultural sector show that the measure could increase revenue by US$410 million, mainly explained by the contribution of soybean meal.
In the case of soybean oil, only 22% of exports were registered, but in soybean meal, not even 15% were declared. The case of wheat was different, which despite being a key input in bread and having a historic international price, almost all of it was already sold abroad.
“With the rise in withholdings on soybean oil and flour, they are going to subsidize bakers,” told a source from the export sector. What is not clear at this time is the mechanism by which these funds will subsidize bread. Inside Faipa they speculated with a new trust managed by the State that would make purchases of wheat or wheat flour. They expect announcements for Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
Currently, the trusts that are in force are that of the oil, for a year, and since last week the one that subsidizes the flour and noodles of Precios Cares. For bread there was no measure. In one of the last meetings between Feletti and the bakers, the climate had become tense when the official threatened price ceilings for bread. The bakers replied that it would be impossible to comply with the cost increases.
From Faipa they commented that in the last two weeks there were increases of more than 100%. The 25 kilo bag of triple zero flour went from $1,200 to $2,500. “The milling company is speculating, because wheat prices did not rise in that proportion. We also have evidence of shortages, they send us half of the orders,” Santoandré said. On the other hand, the 10-kilo box of yeast went from $2,500 to $4,000, the 50-kilo box of sugar from $2,600 to $4,800, and the 20-kilo margarine went from $3,800 to $5,500.
“It is urgent that the Government intervene with some tool, otherwise bread will be 25% more expensive,” economist Emmanuel Álvarez Agis assured in radio statements on Futurock. The measure that will not be on the table is that of the national food company. “It is not our task,” they had said from the Ministry of Agriculture. What Julián Domínguez is looking for with the increase in the industrial sector is that “the producer is not an adjustment variable.” With the rise in withholdings, the differential with the added value of the oil industry would be eliminated.
This Tuesday the INDEC will publish the consumer price index (CPI) for February, which would have been around 4% again, according to private estimates. And March, a month that in itself has a high seasonal impact (back to school), began with worrying numbers for food. In particular, wheat and corn derivatives: in just seven days, bakery products, cereals and pasta rose 4.8%, according to a measurement published on Friday by the LCG consultancy.
Source: Ambito
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