The ordinary lunch, or ‘corrientazo’ It is part of the Colombian routine and culture. Par excellence, it is the menu that many workers consume every day in the middle of their shift, and in many cases, the only one they can afford. After the onslaught of the pandemic, which caused the closure of at least 509,300 micro-businesses according to official statistics, these establishments are facing another threat: inflation.
(Read: This is how food prices have changed in a year).
This week the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) will release the inflation data for February, and it is expected to continue growing beyond the 6.94% registered in January. There, the area that has most driven the variation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is food, with an inflation of 19.94%. But the start of the year was stronger than expected, with inflation registering 1.67% in January alone.
The director of Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo, mentioned that the increase in food outside the home observed a monthly variation of 2.45% and 10.73% per year, and that potatoes, beef, bananas and fruits, which have had significant increases in prices in the last year, are products with a very strong transmission in the prices of current menus.
“In meals outside the home, where we have a contribution of 24 basic points to the monthly variation of the CPI, the ‘corrientazo’ is contributing 18 basic pointsOviedo explained.
Small restaurants have not been immune to the increase in prices. Mary Mena Rentería, cook and owner of the restaurant La Esquina De Mary, in the Plaza de Mercado La Perseverancia, in Bogotá, assures that she had to increase andbetween $2,000 and $3,000 for menu items for the new costs.
(What’s more: Rice, the staple food that withstood the blow of inflation).
“The potato has risen a lot. Without lying, I have bought up to $180,000 a bundle, and a bundle of papa pastusa, when it was very expensive, was achieved at $40,000. I buy oil by 20 liters, and when it was very expensive it was $70,000 or $80,000, now it is $165,000, prices are brutal. With the fish, the snapper was bought for $28,000, now it is $40,000Mary mentions.
Menus increased between $1,000 and $3,000 in this type of establishment. Rise in food weighs on sales and already takes its toll on jobs.
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The Goofy bakery and cafeteria, in Teusaquillo, Bogotá, also sells breakfast and lunch, but due to price increases they have seen sales drop. “It has affected us because the market is very expensive, we came with a lunch at $9,000 and we had to raise it to $10,000 and lunch earnings are affected. It’s difficult,” said Daniela Torres, a local worker.
Although the first shock is in sales, the effect of prices is also penetrating jobs. Beatriz Alvarado, from the Dibulla restaurant in Santa Marta, assures that “Prices have risen in everything: meat, rice, tomatoes, and despite being close to the sea, even fish is more expensive, and sales have dropped. One has cooks and workers, today we are five, but we had to lay off two people”.
A hit to the pocket
(Keep reading: 15% of potato producers have given up cultivation).
The ‘corrientazo’ is a part of the national diet. Henrique Gómez Paris, president of Acodrés, the gastronomic guild, says that the menus have risen between 12% and 26%. “The ‘corrientazo’ have customers with low purchasing power, and when the owner sees the price at which he has to adjust the plate, what has happened is that they have had to close the business, because the one who sells the ‘corrientazo’ has more or less the same socioeconomic condition of its clients”, he indicates.
This was the case with the Don Lucho Restaurant, in Floridablanca (Santander), which temporarily closed due to the pandemic, and after reopening it has had to raise prices. “Before, lunches, with soup included, were worth $8,000, but now they are $10,500, because we had to go back to pay another rental fee, and services went up, but also, the price of meat and potatoes went up a lot, and it’s one of the products we use the most. Now we have to serve a little more”, said the owner of the business.
The consulting firm Raddar also calculates that the size of the market for executive lunches paid by households in 2021 was $36.5 billion.
While in January 2022 families spent about $3.5 billion on executive lunches, in 2021 it was $2.7 billion. Camilo Herrera, founder of the firm, assures that there is a growth in value of 30%, but with an inflation of 11.9%, causing a real growth of 16.8%. This is mainly explained by the fact that in January 2021 this item fell -17% due to the isolations at the beginning of the year.
In meals outside the home, where we have a contribution of 24 basic points to the monthly variation of the CPI, the ‘corrientazo’ is contributing 18 basic points
increases in food prices
Some of the staples of the Colombian diet Significant price increases, such as potatoes (140.16%), beef (34.86%), bananas (42.05%), poultry (26.85%), cassava (46.56%) and the egg (22.48%). Rice (-11.97%) is one of the few foods that has negative inflation today.
(What’s more: Food prices near record high).
Carolina Molina, manager of Narcobollo, a typical food restaurant in Barranquilla, which also sells regular lunches, assures that inflation has hit them. “We make an annual menu, which changes in price and inflation is expected, and in addition to that we make a calculation of how much each product could increase throughout the year, but it has gotten out of hand. There are products that today cost almost double and we have had to modify the prices“, said.
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA
