The government’s measure to attack food inflation is questioned by pork companies. They consider it “discriminatory.”
As the hours go by, different business sectors are expressing their objections to the Government’s decision to open the food imports to induce a drop in domestic prices. Now the Argentine Chamber of the Sausage and Pork Industry (CAICHA) and the Argentine Pork Federation have joined in, repudiating the official measure as they consider it “discriminatory.”
The entities said in a statement that “they strongly reject the decision of the Ministry of Economy to advance in the implementation of measures to facilitate the importation of pork and other derived products.”
“The announced measures, which will reduce payment terms for food imports at the same time as eliminating the payment of profits and VAT on imports, are extremely discriminatory towards the national industry, which will have to compete under unequal conditions, since will be forced to assume import costs for production, from which importers of finished products will be exempt,” they added.
Along the same lines, they explained: “Likewise, the decision reported by the Ministry of Economy ignores the reality of our sector as well as the evolution of prices of our products on shelves. Since the beginning of the year the price of live pork has fallen. more than 35%, going from 1,155 pesos to 744, thus putting downward pressure on the prices of pork products purchased by Argentine consumers. Perhaps that trend is not reflected in some large chains since the promotions end up hiding the effective prices.
Pig meat vs inflation
Also they questioned the data based on which the economic authorities determined to include pork in these opening measures: “From December to date, the prices of fresh chorizo, cooked ham, shoulder – cold cuts – and salami, surveyed by the CPI of the City of Buenos Aires, increased 29, 32, 34 and 33% respectively; less than half of the accumulated inflation measured by the National CPI for that same period. Clearly the information that has been sent to the Ministry regarding the price evolution in our sector it’s not at all accurate.”
They also argued that there is health reasons to doubt the benefits of the official measure for these products: “To make matters worse, the measure does not seem to contemplate health issues, such as the use in third countries of food additives, such as Ractopamine, prohibited for feeding pigs in Argentina.”
Thus, the pork business entities concluded: “For everything stated here, we request the National Government to Please review your decision to avoid unnecessary harm to our producers and industries.. The scourge of inflation is a macroeconomic problem that we neither generated nor encouraged. We suffer it along with all Argentines. “We are available to the authorities to collaborate in the collective construction of sustainable public policies to order the economy as soon as possible.”
Source: Ambito
