September 28, 2022, 4:00 AM
September 28, 2022, 4:00 AM
The butchers announce the increase in the price of the product after its national expansion announced for October 3. In addition, they refuse to meet with the Deputy Minister of Internal Trade, Grover Lacoa, at an appointment scheduled for today.
Jesús Huchani, executive secretary of the National Confederation of Bolivian Meat Workers (Contracabol), said that a national increase in the price of the product will be announced at the expanded national meeting on October 3, which will take place in Santa Cruz.
The leader reported that the Government sent them an invitation to meet with Lacoa today, but that they will not meet with an authority that “disinforms” and attributes representation to “small sectors.”
He added that they will only meet with the Ministers of Productive Development, Néstor Huanca, and of Rural Development and Land, Remmy Gonzales. “In Santa Cruz they have been increasing (the price of beef) gradually, not all of them, depending on whether the rancher or the wholesaler increases the prices of the meat,” he said.
Minister Huanca said that, given Contracabol’s unilateral announcement to raise prices, the meat industry and the refrigerators themselves have confirmed that they will lower their prices by up to Bs 2 (a hook kilo) for the benefit of the final consumer. The authority assured that this is the commitment of the Fridosa, Frigor and BFC companies.
Regarding the agreement reached with the refrigerators, Huchani stated that so far he has no reports that this reduction has been made effective. “It is a very good solution, but one that is applied in practice, not only by the media,” he remarked.
But Minister Huanca insisted: “There is no reason to increase the price of beef,” after detailing the ways in which Contracabol’s demands were met.
They guarantee supply
While the Bolivian Cattlemen’s Confederation (Congabol) through President Hernán Julio Nogales, the head of Fegasacruz, Adrián Castedo and representatives of the country’s main refrigerators, gave a press conference to indicate that the productive sector guarantees the supply of meat on a national scale, as it has been doing throughout all the years, therefore, the increase is not justified.
