The Secretary of Commerce will meet this week with directors of the largest manufacturers of consumer goods to work on an agreement to keep the prices of between 1,200 and 1,500 products fixed, such as food, beverages, personal hygiene and cleaning, sources confirmed to Télam. officers.
Although the term of the agreement is not defined, the goal of the Fair Prices program -as it was unofficially called- is for it to last at least 90 daysin order to provide greater price certainty to face the coming months and deepen the scheme currently granted by the Care Prices program.
According to sources from the Ministry of Commerce led by Matías Tombolini, it is “an exceptional measure” but, in no case, it is a freezingsince it is not an imposition of a fixed price, but of “a voluntary agreement with the employers”.
In this regard, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa assured in a radio interview on Sunday that “the freezes dictated by the idea that the force of the State is enough, I don’t think they work,” although he was in favor of “an agreement not only from month to month as with Care Prices, but for a longer term, which gives several months of certainty to the consumer.”
“I believe in a work agreed with the mass consumption companies that between 20 and 25 represent 65% of what Argentines consume,” Massa added.referring to the Fair Prices plan, which would include the obligation of companies to place the final price on the product package, which is added to an “online driver dashboard”.
“We have been discussing all of this with the mass product companies” among which the minister included medicines; to reach an agreement “wider than Care Products and longer in time”, in a work in which the companies, the Secretary of Commerce, the AFIP and the Secretary of Industry participate.
Ten days ago, the Care Prices program was renewed with a basket of more than 450 products, in which more than 150 basic necessities and first lines were added to brands such as Coca Cola or Quilmes -which were already part of the program- Ledesma and Chango sugar were added; refrigerated milk in sachets from La Serenissima (its main product) and five brands of herbs: Playadito, Taragüi, Unión, Amanda and Rosamonte.
The basket also includes Bimbo bread, empanada tapas and La Salteña cakes, Gallo fine and classic long rice, Matarazzo and Lucchetti noodles, La Virginia and Cabrales ground coffee, Pantene, Sedal and L’Oreal shampoo and conditioner, among others.
The agreement with the business chambers, the United Supermarkets Association (ASU), the Argentine Chamber of Supermarkets (CAS) and the Argentine Federation of Supermarkets and Self-Services (FASA) will be in force until January 7, 2023.
The price agreement established with refrigerators and supermarkets for the marketing of the seven most representative cuts of meat consumed by Argentines, at prices considerably lower than those observed in the market, was also renewed until November 7.
The values of the cuts per kilo will be: strip of roast, $765; empty, $999; kill, $969; skirt, $499; roast lid, $765; buttock, $1,049; and palette, $849. For Patagonia (boneless cuts) a differential of 6% is added.
The cuts are available in more than 1,000 outlets that include the large supermarket chains Coto, Jumbo, Plaza Vea, Disco, Carrefour, Walmart, Changomas, La Anónima and Día, the wholesale chains Vital and Makro, and butcher shops attached to the Union of the Argentine Meat Industry (UNICA) and the consortium of exporters ABC.
