A little over an hour lasted the meeting held by the Minister of Productive Development, Matias Kulfastogether with the Secretary of Domestic Trade, Roberto Feletti, with the big food companies and supermarket owners. In the meeting, the speculative price increases that he advanced Page I12 this Sunday, and it was embodied like this one of the central battles that the National Government will have in the way of trying to tame a runaway inflation: a political arm wrestling with a part of the economic power that, in a context of war and price resurgence, reacted by accelerating tensions in the gondolas. The first data: in the confrontation, cases of food with rises of 30 and up to 60 percent prior to the announcement of measures against inflation by the president Alberto Fernandez. The businessmen claimed “some error in the lists” and the Government asked them to return those prices to the level of March 8.
Around 10 in the morning, the president of the Food Producers Coordinator (Copal), Daniel Funes from Riojadirectors of some of the leading brands in the sector and, in the other corner, the supermarket leaders gathered in the United Supermarkets Association (TO ITS). The first postcard of that meeting already contextualizes how complex the arm wrestling will be for the Government. Although Funes participated, the companies Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Molinos Río de la Plata, Aceitera General Deheza (AGD), Mastellone and Coca Cola, among others, they sent to an event that the Executive understood as relevant, to second and third lines. That was further evidenced by the way in which those in the retail sector played. They put 5 of the 6 CEOs of the large supermarkets in the chairs, including Carrefour, Coto, Día, Super Chango Más (former Walmart) and La Anónima.
At the extensive table, the Government requested collaboration in a complex context and clarified that all those who increased without justification, must return the values to March 8 or 10. And that there will be 24 hours to review specific cases and discharges from the companies. “There could have been an error, we are going to review the lists,” dribbled the envoy from Molinos Río de la Plata, the food company of the Pérez Companc family, before direct evidence that they showed him: pre-announcement hikes of up to 60 percent, especially flours. The same thing happened with the dairy Mastellone, in fluid milks.
There Funes intervened, who was willing to negotiate and support, but cited his excuses for the case. He complained about the Supply Law enforcement warnings made by Kulfas over the weekend in an interview with Futurock. And he also mentioned the existence of increases in freight rates and problems in the ports, which would have affected the aforementioned increases. The truth is that food, according to the February CPI of INDEC, rose 7.5 percent when the war in Ukraine had not yet hit, frozen tariffs, unapplied gasoline increase and zero impact of parity.
Some food companies, off the microphone, admit that there are no real reasons for the increases, other than replacement costs. That, in a nutshell, means that “We are trying to recover what we lost in the pandemic, selling now that there is demand”. At the table with the Government, it was stated on the official side that the balances of the food companies, which returned to report profits, do not have those data that are used as justification for the increases. “As much as they want, but there is no social margin for these unjustified increases”shot Secretary Feletti.
In this context, the Government swims in deep waters with sharks, complicated by two factors: the first, an economic cabinet that has nuances regarding how to proceed in the power relationship with the establishment. Secondly, a dispute with players who have been playing with prices for a long time. One case, that of Molinos Río: in mid-2018, the government of Mauricio Macri forgiven the company a debt of 70 million dollars for unpaid taxes on exports. A few days later, a Macri jeopardized by inflation and with the dollar skyrocketing, summoned food companies to Olivos to ask them not to raise prices any more. Molinos sat down, at that time, the manager Amancio Onetto, who promised to stop the rises with the former president. But days before, the firm had already increased between 15 and 20 percent. Today, history repeats itself. And this case is replicable, to a greater or lesser extent, to the rest of the companies that highlighted, including AdeccoAgro, Coca Cola and Molino Cañuelas.
It is not the first time that, in recent days and since it shows internal political weaknesses, sectors of economic power have rebelled against the Government in the midst of fighting inflation. The previous case was the decision of the ABC meat consortium to remove the 7 agreed popular cuts from the shelves. When the Minister of Agriculture, Julián Domínguez, threatened to close their exports, they rolled back the decision in a matter of minutes. The other conflict front is that of agriculture: even without having touched the withholdings on the primary field and yes on agribusiness, the Liaison Table asked the political table of Together for Change to hold a meeting to join a conflict that does not has as affected actors.