The Directorate of Consumer Care and Assistance (Diaco), an entity attached to the Ministry of Economy (Mineco), requested yesterday to carry out an investigative process and determine whether there is a crime of price speculation on products such as tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, onions and avocado.
Claudia Karina Donis Sáenz, director of that department, yesterday filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), requesting an investigation into those people who may be speculating with the sale of vegetables, greens and fruits, agricultural goods that have become more expensive in recent weeks.
According to the document, criminal charges are filed once morest “producers, distributors (exporters, industry, collection centers, intermediaries, wholesalers and retailers) as well as those involved in marketing, such as: owners of supermarkets, markets (Terminal and Central de Mayoreo -CENMA-, grocery stores and neighborhood stores and in general any person that the investigating entity manages to identify in the production, distribution and marketing chain of the following vegetables: tomato, potato, onion, cabbage; as well as others that are considered. In the case of fruits, such as avocado.”
The official indicated that “the sanction being requested is three years in prison and the maximum fine” -up to Q100 thousand-. In the Diaco letter, the intervention of the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT) is also requested, so that it begins the corresponding prosecution for fiscal and tax crimes; a price report to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food; and a request to the municipalities of Guatemala and Villa Nueva to list the names of the merchants who are working in the La Terminal Market zone 4 and Central de Mayoreo (Cenma).
According to the director of Diaco, the MP should make the requests and prosecute the people who are speculating. “On Friday – July 12 – when we worked together with the SAT, and the Ministries of the Interior and Defense, we found that the possible causes of speculation are centered on wholesale centers such as Cenma and La Terminal,” she indicated.
Inflation on the rise
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), during the last six months the interannual inflation has behaved as follows: 3.82%, 3.30%, 3.24%, 3.36%, 3.76% and 3.62%, which the monetary authorities consider normal, since it is within the annual target (4% +/-1%).
These figures are mainly influenced by increases in the prices of food and beverages, as well as fuel, which coincides with the perception of families regarding the permanent increase in the price of many products that make up the Basic Food Basket (CBA).
Meanwhile, the authorities of Mineco, INE and Diaco have not explained in depth and in detail the situation of price increases, especially of perishable products, whose producers claim that it is due to the infrastructure crisis (which raises costs) and the damage to agriculture caused by the rains, which have caused shortages.
“Testing it will be difficult”
Regarding the aforementioned complaint, the executive director of the Guatemalan Chamber of Food and Beverages (CGAB), Enrique Lacs, stated that it is very difficult to establish speculation in basic agricultural products, since prices are influenced by variables such as the season, origin of the goods, marketing conditions, seasonal demand, and others.
“Comparisons can be made based on points of sale, and there are also conditions to be assessed in order to determine whether there is speculation. If this is confirmed, hearings would have to be held to reestablish the conditions of prices and quality,” he said.
In his opinion, in order to proceed with a criminal complaint, the cause must be a crime and in this case it is indicated that it is speculation. And the evidence to determine this is based on an analysis of costs, of real supply, of price fixing and whether it is the function of the State to verify and sanction criminal practices and in particular to establish whether the “speculator” affects the consumer and to what extent.
Finally, to the question of how the prices of these basic products can be controlled in the economy, he replied that “the verification of prices and quality are attributions established in national regulations, as well as the sanctions for abuses and harm to consumers. However, this must be consistent with the freedom of trade established by the Constitution of the Republic, since trade cannot be restricted or a businessman who sets sales prices that depend on his operating and purchasing costs cannot be sanctioned.”
Reported variations
Diaco argues that several products have a variation that is not proportional to the market conditions that occurred in the months prior to July 2024:
In the case of markets, some prices are mentioned: the pound of tomato in the month of June of this year was at a price of Q3.50 to Q7; the pound of onion, from Q5 to Q7; the pound of potato, from Q5.50 to Q8; the güisquil per unit, from Q3 to Q6; and the avocado, from Q3 to Q6.50.
However, in July of the same year, the prices of the above-mentioned products increased as follows: a) the pound of tomato, Q11; b) the pound of onion, to Q9; c) the pound of potato, to Q10; d) the unit of güisquil to Q8; and the unit of avocado, to Q15.
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