The family basket has felt the impacts of the general rise in prices. Although food is one of the most worrying goods, since in February they already accumulated an annual inflation of 23.3%, others, such as cleaning products, have also seen their prices skyrocket.
(Read: This is how A. Latina works to avoid food crisis due to Russian war).
This year, the category ‘goods and services for the home and for its ordinary maintenance’ is the second that has grown the most in prices, with an increase of 5.6% only between January and February. In addition, this group is also slightly above the current total inflation (8.01%) and in February it reached an annual variation of 8.86%.
“There are cleaning products for the home, which play a very important role due to the increases in January and February of these basic chemical substances to produce detergent, powder for washing clothes, liquid soap for washing dishes, or soap in bars to wash clothes are leading to have those variations”, explained the director of Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo, in the latest publication of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The market for cleaning products moved in Colombia about $3.2 billion During 2021, according to figures from Euromonitor, and within this, the products destined for laundry work contributed $1.8 billion.
The bleach market was responsible for $387.1 billion, while dishwashers generated purchases of $300.3 billion and surface care products moved $107.4 billion in 2021.
Ana Gloria Duarte, a member of Utrasd, the Afro-Colombian Union of Domestic Workers, classifies the rise of this type of product as “terrible”.
“El Jabón Rey was costing $1,800 last year, right now it is $2,500 a bar. The large 3-liter laundry soap was $8,500, and right now it’s like $10,500. The shampoo is also more expensive. In many houses my companions do not handle the prices, because they make the list and the lady or the gentleman of the house does the shopping; but I do the market for the lady, that’s why I can see the cost”, he assures.
(What’s more: 62% of Colombian households can buy fewer basic goods).
Duarte mentions how vinegar, widely used in cleaning tasks, went from costing jug about $6,000 to $10,000that brooms and gloves are also more expensive, and that garbage bags have even doubled their prices.
“But they are not only cleaning products, in general everything went up, especially the market. With food, as with meat, you stop buying and, for example, you can eat lentils as a substitute, but with cleaning products it is very difficult. How do you wash a bathroom or clothes without soap, or how do you stop using paper? hygienic?“, he questions.
THE COMPANIES
The inflation in these products not only affects consumers, but also companies. “There has been a very strong impact on raw material costs since the last quarter of 2021 that has become more acute since then. The impact on the global supply chain has passed the bill mercilessly”, says Ricardo Escobar Saavedra, president of Eterna. The company founded 70 years ago in Bogotá, has seven plants between Colombia and Peru and is dedicated to the manufacture of gloves, fibers and cloths and household liquids.
(Read: Colombia, among the countries with the best educational management during covid).
According to Escobar, for this reason they have seen the need to product price increases. But he maintains that the company has made an effort not to transmit the full impact of the increase in raw materials to the market. “Rather, we have complemented each other with our economy of scale and we have been able to offer our consumer the same experience without him feeling that his pocket is very affected,” he indicates.
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA ELEJALDE
