The focus of the meeting with the large companies will go through the acceleration of prices, the lack of supply of agreements such as Cared Prices and the needs of dollars for production inputs. The objective of the Ministry of Economy is to recover reference prices, in a context of high dispersion, and stabilize the values of the products of the basic basket. In the Government they rule out a freezespeak of dialogue to “order” prices and both Massa and President Alberto Fernández are committed to an “economic and social agreement”.
After a month that had record inflation in 20 years, August is also heading to close with hot prices. Only in the third week of August, inflation in food and beverages was 1.9%, accelerating 1.2 points compared to the previous week, according to the LCG consultancy that carries out weekly surveys. In the last four weeks, the price increase was 6.6% average. The categories that increased the most were vegetables, baked goods and pasta, condiments and dairy products, in all cases above 9%.
Sector agreements
In his first three weeks at the head of the Secretary of Commerce, Tombolini dealt with sectoral agreements. At the end of last week, It was agreed that the Government will subsidize almost half of the wheat milling, so that the flour reaches the industry at a lower price and thus contain the price of baked goods, from bread to pasta.
The Ministry of Economy will do it through the so-called Wheat Trust, which on Friday incorporated 10 milling companies, and in this way There are already 20 mills that receive state subsidies, 45% of the total wheat flour millingwith the aim of “decoupling” the price of wheat from international values, as reported by Commerce.
In addition, this week Tombolini will convene the bakery chambers to agree on reference prices for bread. The wheat trust was the tool chosen by former minister Martín Guzmán to contain prices, due to changes in withholdings. Since the creation was agreed, last March, bread has risen more than $100 per kilo. In February, flute-type French bread cost $225.8, according to INDEC, while in July it amounted to $327.4, a rise of 45% in just 5 months.
On the other hand, last week the secretariat held meetings with dairy companies and supermarkets to improve compliance with the supply of dairy products from Care Prices on the shelves. In a context of record inflation, both food companies and supermarkets agree on low levels of supply and battle for payment terms and updates to list prices.
In dialogue with businessmen and marketers, Tombolini assured them that he considers programs such as Care Prices “fundamental tools”, he stated that he does not believe in the logic of “persecution”, but asked that “what was agreed be fulfilled”. For this reason, a fortnightly follow-up of the technical teams of the secretariat and the companies involved was established to cross-check supply data of the volumes committed.
Source: Ambito
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