Black bean prices have had a constant rise and doubled their price, going from Q323.97 as an average price per quintal in April 2019 to Q682.50 on average as of April 2024, a variation of 110%. This grain reflected its highest peaks in September and October of last year, when it was priced between Q715 and Q730 for each quintal.
Year-on-year increases have also varied. In 2020, when the first months of the covid-19 pandemic were being experienced, the increase as of April was 30.4%, in 2021 and 2022 it was 7.3% and 9.8% respectively.
However, in 2023 and 2024 an increase was once more recorded with double-digit percentages, reporting 16.02% and 18% increases respectively, according to data from price reports from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (Maga), which issues annual, monthly, weekly and daily data, collected in the La Terminal market, in zone 4 of the capital.
As observed in the Maga price report, in the first two weeks of April it was stable at Q675 per quintal of black beans, but on April 18 it was already at Q697.50, according to daily monitoring on that date. Derived from this, the average of the three weeks in that market as of April 18, 2024 is estimated at Q682.50.
Asked regarding this, the Minister of Agriculture, Maynor Estrada, explained that the quota for black bean imports was opened “because the decrease in national production is notable” in many highly productive areas in the north of the country, due to a plague that affected them. it is affecting.
According to information expanded by Maga, this pest is called bean flower thrips. megalurothrips usual. When it exists in a country, when flowering begins, the population level of this pest increases where they feed on the flower buds, which results in deformity and abortion of the flowers and pods in formation.
The official explained that not only does demand continue to grow, but production has decreased greatly, something that Maga is currently concerned regarding since production yields have been low and costs have also increased.
The price “of beans did go up completely,” said Estrada, saying that it is more than Q600 per quintal. “Even though in some places it has reached Q900, we are very concerned regarding that,” the minister insisted.
Estrada explained that black bean imports are already strong, mainly from the United States, and that they have been coming from China for years. Now, he said, this contingent has been opened.
This measure was published last week and authorizes a quota to prevent shortages in order to import 55 thousand metric tons of black beans with zero tariffs.
According to an extension of the Maga report, the effects on national production for 4 years have been various, initially the pandemic, then increases in the costs of inputs for cultivation such as fertilizers, the general increase in prices including fuels registered in 2021 and 2022, which still have effects in 2024, and in recent months the drought derived from the El Niño phenomenon, and the aforementioned plague. The entity adds that a shortage of said product has been observed, the decrease in grain supply this season (2023/2024) is due to the seasonality of the crop, the national harvest season is ending in production areas and markets. They are supplied with stored grain coming mainly from the northern and eastern areas of the country.
The official said that “it is a strong issue” because “we have two products that are part of our diet and part of our food sovereignty, such as beans and corn, and when we already have dependence on other countries, for example beans, “That becomes a strong issue, even if it is two quintals.”
Resilience
Separately, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Máximo Torero, who was recently in the country, mentioned that another concern is the need to provide production technology and seed varieties. to producers, since it has been detected that, as the bean plant is more vulnerable to climates such as drought, some producers are replacing that crop with corn.
Climate change is going to affect and has already been affecting the region and Guatemala, and what has to be done there is to make these homes more resilient, which includes, among other aspects, also investments in varieties and production technologies that are more resilient to extreme temperatures and lack of water, said the FAO official.
“For example, here – in Guatemala – there has been a substitution of beans for corn, which is worrying, because it is a society that consumes beans, and they are being imported from China and other countries,” said Torero.
He explained that this substitution is occurring because beans are much more sensitive to changes in extreme temperatures, which is why producers prefer to grow corn, which is more resistant.
The problem, said the expert, is that we are talking regarding losses of around 30%, and therefore it is necessary to improve bean production, to have resistant and certified varieties, which the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (Icta ), can have a greater production capacity for certified seeds, so that producers can have access to them, and can increase their productivity and the quality of what they produce.
The Minister of Agriculture said that he did not have details of the substitution of production, but he considers that small producers are not making this change because they are association crops, and that if so it might possibly be occurring in medium and large producers.
Apart from the prices that may occur in the market, reserves of basic grains are monitored. According to the report provided by Maga, updated as of March 2024 based on FAO data, family reserves of black beans in the different regions are low, in the North they have enough for half a month, on the South coast, they no longer had them, In the East they have 1.7 months, in the West they have 10 days. The calculation is based on the fact that the requirement of an average family of 6 members is 7 quintals of beans per year, according to the report.
Corn
Regarding white corn, which is for human consumption, the Minister of Agriculture explained that it is produced in the country and that production is currently good, although he said that the price is currently high, for example, he said, the quintal at wholesale price is between Q225 and Q245.
According to Maga price reports, the average monthly price of a quintal of prime white corn paid to the wholesaler in the La Terminal market was Q137.50 in April 2019; By April 2023 it had risen Q88.40, an increase of 64%.
For April of this year, it is reported at an average of Q209.83, 7% lower than that reported in that month of 2023, but represents 52% more compared to 2019.
The weekly report as of April 12 states that wholesalers indicated that there was a supply of the product, however, the price of white corn showed upward variations, and that the markets are supplied with stored national corn and grain of Mexican origin.
This upward trend has recorded that the average of the first week of April was Q202, the second was Q212.50 and on April 18 it was quoted at Q215.
In the case of corn, Maga indicates that the main reasons that have caused such a situation are due to the increase in the price of fertilizers, the increase in the price of fuel in the last three years, as well as the effects of climate change. that in some way affect yields, although this last factor has been a lower proportion of incidence.
Regarding yellow corn, the minister said that for many years almost 100% has been imported and used for agribusiness. This is used for balanced animal feed and industrial production.
Rice
The price of premium white gold rice increased 25%, according to data from April 2019 to the same month in 2024, increasing the average per quintal monitored in the La Terminal market from Q327.50 to Q407.50.
In 2023 it had its highest peak with Q420, per quintal. In the case of basic grain, historically national production still does not cover all demand, since 70% of what is consumed is imported and 30% is national, indicated the minister, referring that in recent months the price has been stable. .
The president of the Guatemalan Rice Association (Arrozgua), José Antonio Pivaral, explained that the price of this basic grain is the one that has been most stable.
They state that national production is around 1,600,000 quintals of rice and that the sector estimates that the problem of lack of rain will lead to less than half being produced this year, and they will only harvest around 700,000 quintals.
He said that the drop might be between 50 and 55%, so it will be necessary to use the quota to prevent shortages of imports without tariffs authorized by the government; however, in the first three months of the year it has not been necessary to activate it.
Impacts
In recent months, the El Niño phenomenon has had a negative impact on households derived from low production of certain crops or increases in prices.
Beans, corn and rice are part of the basic diet of thousands of Guatemalan families, and both those who subsist on agriculture for self-consumption and those who must purchase their food have been affected by the constant increases in prices, in the last years.
Apart from the concern mentioned by the FAO official, last week Free Press released new figures on food insecurity in the country. In the first two months of 2024, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (ICF) projected that 3.1 million Guatemalans would be in crisis and emergency levels of acute food insecurity, but on April 17, the Hunger Monitoring carried out by The World Food Program (WFP) reported that more than 3.8 million people in the country had insufficient food consumption, this figure represents 22.25% of the population.
Added to this is the study The El Niño phenomenon does not allow “Dreaming the Table” in the dry corridor of Central America, developed by several entities including Oxfam, which reveals that the loss of crops together with the high increase in food prices and limited state aid, led to families facing high levels of food insecurity at the end of 2023.
The evaluation carried out by Oxfam involved 2,049 rural households from six municipalities located in the dry corridor area, and indicates that the annual investment in the production of basic grains of these families is US$161.73, while 94% use more of half of its bean and corn production for self-consumption.
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