MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Shortage of affordable groceries reported in Argentina

Top-notch, unaffordable brands are still available, though

Shortages of basic products at Argentine supermarkets have been reported Friday, particularly of flour, cooking oil, and dry noodles of the most affordable brands. Media coverage has also outlined a sharp increase in the price of eggs.

According to the Mendoza-based MDZ, supermarket shelves are evidence of the country's current crisis. The less expensive brands of oil, flour, and dry noodles are the most difficult to find, as inflation keeps hitting Argentine consumers.

Shoppers who have in the past switched from top-notch products to less costly brands have been left with no alternatives. MDZ reports that variants of the less affordable products are still to be found on the shelves.

One liter of sunflower oil of one of the most popular brands costs AR$ 244 (US $ 1.3 at the unofficial exchange rate) and is hardly available, according to MDZ. Triple-zero flour, used for bread production, “is also part of the hard-to-get commodities,” MDZ warns.

“On the street, speculations about the causes of the shortages of priority foodstuffs for a large part of the population” range “from the impact of the war [in Ukraine] on the other side of the world to the national context,” MDZ explained.

The publication also pointed out the chains could be “stockpiling” merchandise to launch new increases, which are becoming noticeably more frequent for a country that has already gone through hyperinflation.

“The bag of flour went from costing 1,050 pesos a bag to 1900 pesos in just a few days,” a trader quoted by MDZ complained. Retailers are having trouble not translating those increases to consumers, because they know that, in the end, it would result in fewer sales.

Dry noodles are also in short supply, with prices ranging between AR$ 69 (US$ 0.35 at the unofficial rate) and 129 (US$ 0.65).

(Source: MDZ)