MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

St Valentine's Day rise in bread to hit beleaguered Argentine families

Argentina's economy is going through a wave of price increases

The price of bread in Argentina is to rise between 20% and 25% as of next Monday, Feb. 14 in a very special St Valentine's Day gift both to consumers and to a Government that is struggling to curb inflation and keep the exchange rate of the local peso against the US dollar from skyrocketing.

One kilo of bread at bakeries will cost between AR $ 240 and AR $ 300 (US $ 1.15 to US $ 1.43 at the unofficial rate). The price of cakes and other products retailed at bakeries is also expected to go up.

Baker guilds claim the increase stems from the need to make up for other adjustments in the prices of fuel and raw materials such as eggs, sugar, plastics, paper and yeast.

Industrial Bakery Federation [of the province] of Buenos Aires (FIPBA) Chairman Raúl Santoandré explained that “eggs, for example, rose 30% in ten days; sugar 33%; plastics and paper, 10%, and yeast 35%.”

“It is inevitable for us to have to transfer these increases to our prices,” Santoandré added.

These price adjustments are expected to have a significant impact on households at a time many families also have to deal with extra schooling costs, since classes are set to begin between late February and early March.

Last week, fuel went up 9% on average, and most raw materials involve truck deliveries. Fuel had been frozen since May 2021, ahead of the mid-term elections.

Utility rates are also expected to rise shortly as nnegotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) require toe Government to cot down or even eliminate subsidies to reduce public spending.

“It is a situation that hurts us because we know that bread cannot be missing from the table of any Argentine family. That is why we always collaborate with everything we can, but the reality is that the price increases are disproportionate and if we do not also increase, many bakeries will” go out of business, Santoandré stressed.