The national government will announce this week the implementation of a plan with 10% discounts for the purchase of beef with debit cards in butcher shops that adhere to the initiative, official sources informed the Télam agency today.
In this way, consumers might receive refunds on their purchases of up to $1,000 per transaction.
Within this framework, the butcher shops that adhere to the initiative promoted by the Ministry of Economy “will have the benefit of paying only 10% of the corresponding rate of the self-employed regime”, which implies a 90% discount on the amount Of the same.
The sources also indicated that the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries is defining incentive measures to increase the supply of cattle, which might also be announced in the coming days.
This measure seeks to be a “relief for the consumer” in a context of rising prices of beef, and inflation that in January might have exceeded 6%.
Prices
In Buenos Aires, the average price of consumer categories such as live steers went from $309 a kilo in the first operation in January to $418 last Friday, which implied a 35% rise, while in steer the jump went from $312 to $433 a live kilo, a jump of 38%.
This increase in farm values translated into strong increases in consumer prices, which according to the president of the Chamber of Slaughterers and Suppliers (Camya), Leonardo Rafael, were, up to now, between $350 and $400. per kilo.
In dialogue with Télam, Rafael warned that the increase has not ended and that part of the price still remains to be transferred to the counters and that the amount in question might be around $200 per kilo.
With regard to half beef, the increases transferred to the retail trade by butchers, refrigerators and suppliers, and which were completed last week, were on average between $250 and $300 per kilo.
Among the main reasons put forward by the livestock sector and the industry to justify such a jump in prices, is the delay in the values of the farm and meat to the consumer with respect to the evolution of inflation throughout the 2022.
Consumption
According to the Institute for the Promotion of Argentine Beef (Ipcva), during the 12 months of last year, the average price of meat to consumers grew 42.2%, while the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec) reported a overall price increase of 94.8%.
The drought was the main factor that determined a “stagnation” in the prices of the meat market, since the lack of pastures and water made the producers detach part of their herd due to the shortage of animal feed, in a context in which the level of consumer demand did not require a greater volume of meat for the domestic market.
With this situation, a decrease in international prices converged, which did not allow the export sector to drive prices.
For the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), this jump in values ”is clearly an adjustment of prices?
As an example, from the Institute of Economic Studies (IEE) of the SRA pointed out that during all of 2022 the price of the standing farm destined for the local market (Novillito +390kg), rose only 30%, while the sales cuts to the public maracon an increase of 46%.
“What is happening with beef is something that we have been anticipating for months: a normalization and adaptation of the delayed values from last year,” summarized the coordinator of the SRA Meat Commission, Carlos Odriozola.
