MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lacalle Pou signals price of meat to go up in Uruguay

“We are in a very volatile moment,” Lacalle said

Uruguay's President Luis Lacalle Pou Tuesday heralded there would be news regarding the price of meat and some other “fundamental inputs.” He also announced the measures will be announced at different times, and they also will be “internal, except for some imports of meat cuts.”

Lacalle admitted there would be increases in prices. He added that Argentina's domestic measures did affect the Uruguayan market.

The Uruguayan head of state also said the announcements would be made “at any moment” and that there was no choice but to raise some prices as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Given this situation, the President had spoken with Ministers Omar Paganini (Industry), Azucena Arbeleche (Economy), Fernando Mattos (Agriculture and Livestock), and members of the National Meat Institute (INAC).

“There are quite firm conversations with the people who, in some way, are in the sale and production of certain products of the basic food basket. At any moment they will have news about some prices of some fundamental inputs,” Lacalle explained.

When asked about the increase in the price of meat in the local market, he replied that “that is one of the issues that we are about to have news [about].”

“There is going to be news shortly. Not of all products at the same time and they are not the same measures for all products of the basic basket,” he added.

Regarding the possibility of reaching agreements with Argentina and Brazil, Lacalle explained that “the issue with Argentina is that it has taken measures in domestic policy concerning exports and that ties our hands a little bit. ... With Brazil, the most notorious input of production and used by most citizens, fuel, has been notoriously brought closer to domestic prices,” the Uruguayan head of state went on.

Lacalle also made it clear that most “measures will be domestic, except for some imports of meat cuts, probably from Paraguay.”

The President took a cautious approach: “I don't want to call it a price agreement,” he pointed out.

“I have not given it a name, but I have given enough sensitivity to those who are in some exploitation or commercial activity that is booming and, at the same time, are forced to have higher [sale] prices because the [price of] raw material is growing,” he added.

The President also pointed out that “everyone must understand that we are in a very difficult and volatile moment.”

“What can be done by the government and by the private sector to sustain the prices of basic food basket products, we are going to do it together,” he stressed.