MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina eyes National Food Company to regulate domestic prices

”We need a break with international prices in wheat, corn, meat and milk,” Feletti said

The Government of Argentina is planning to create a National Food Company as a measure to curb inflation, keep prices under control and help small and medium producers, Presidential Spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti said Thursday in Buenos Aires.

“Inflation is a damage to the Argentine table and the Government is evaluating a solution, not because it is politically interested, but because it is its duty to change people's lives,” Cerruti explained.

She also admitted presidential advisors were considering the creation of a state-run food company which would guarantee low prices and help small producers of fresh vegetables.

The spokeswoman acknowledged there was an increase in the prices of vegetables which were not included in recent agreements between Governments and Producers and said the issue was being addressed. Among the proposals was the possibility that small producers can distribute their goods through a different mechanism, which should be dettached from international prices, so that they can reach the population in an affordable fashion.

“The Government is unable to see how it can help small and medium-sized producers,” Cerruti said during her usual Thursday press briefing.

“The fight against inflation has to do with price control but also with production and exports, and with international agreements such as the IMF,“ Cerruti went on.

”All these issues are taken together and seen as a global policy in order to be successful in the fight against inflation, which is one of our great objectives”, she added.

Domestic Trade Secretary Roberto Feletti had called Wednesday for stronger prince controls on the Government's part. “It is necessary to rebuild state instruments that allow establishing regulations against what is the free market in the allocation of food resources,“ Feletti stressed.

”We need a break with international prices in wheat, corn, meat and milk,” he added.

Meanwhile, National Director of Integrative Policies Rafael Klejzer explained that “a national food company, directly associated with the producers, will allow promoting the active role of the State, in terms of planning , regulation, control, production, cost analysis and marketing of food, in a market that today is highly concentrated and in the hands of large corporations.”

Klejzer insisted this strategy would generate ”a reference price for mass consumption products and curb the greed of companies that understand food as a commodity and not as a social right.”

(Source: Infobae)