The agreement with refrigerators and supermarkets to give continuity to the Care Cuts program began to take effect from this Monday, It will be valid throughout 2022 and involves the marketing of seven of the main cuts of beef at agreed and accessible prices throughout the country.
The program includes most representative cuts of consumption of the Argentines with options for the grill, for daily consumption, such as milanese, and for cooking in a pot.
The Secretary of Internal Trade, Roberto Feletti, assured this morning in radio statements with Radio 10, that the cuts of meat of the agreement are offered “at prices an average of 24% lower than those of the market” and are not part of “a basket of social assistance but compatible with the consumption of the average Argentine”.
In that sense, Feletti expressed that “the basket will achieve what we are looking for, which is to match income with prices, that is, lower the weight of food in the average salary”said the secretary.
Furthermore, he confirmed that “the basket is working” and that “12,000 tons per month of meat in the large supermarket chains” were agreed upon.
However, he explained that there is “tension regarding supply, because there is a lot of confrontation with the basket,” and he even assured that there are “companies that agree but then discuss or do not comply.”
The secretary also commented that during the year-end holiday season “7 million kilos of beef were sold, which shows that there is demand,” and stressed that the cuts of meat in the agreement are offered “at prices of 24% on average lower than those in the market”.
In addition, it contextualized “Fresh product inflation is international inflation”.
Therefore, he stressed that “it is necessary that there be regulatory instruments, such as export quotas, trusts”, and pointed out that “it cannot happen that we end up eating what the Liaison Table wants”.
As for Courtesy Care, the first stage of the program will last until April 7, when the extension conditions for the rest of the year will be analyzed, and the prices of the agreement will have a 2% increase pattern between April 7 March and April 7.
Consumers can buy the cuts in more than 1,000 mouths of sale that include the large supermarket chains Coto, Jumbo, Vea, Disco, Carrefour, Walmart, Changomas, La Anónima and Día%, the wholesale chains Vital and Makro, and butcher shops affiliated with Unica and ABC.
The value per kilo of cut is $699 per strip of roast; $749 empty; $779 a kill; $449 a skirt; $639 for the roast lid; $799 a buttock; and $649 a palette.
Likewise, the Association of United Supermarkets (ASU), the consortium of Argentine meat exporters ABC, the refrigerators grouped in the Federation of Regional Meat Processing Industries (Fifra) and the Union of the Argentine Meat Industry (Unica) are also part of the agreement.
The average retail price of beef rose 2.5% in January compared to December and was 54.8% above what was registered in the first month of 2021, according to the Institute for the Promotion of Argentine Beef ( Ipcva).
In this way, the value of this food chained its third consecutive monthly rise, although below the increases of December and November 2021, when prices jumped 9.7% and 10.8%, respectively.
The most important increases in prices occurred in supermarkets, where the different cuts of meat increased 6%, while the 80 butcher shops surveyed by the Ipcva registered increases of 1%.
