2024-05-12 13:32:38
According to the Price Index at Origin and Destination (IPOD) prepared by the Regional Economies sector of the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME), in April the prices of agri-food multiplied by 3.5 times those of the field (origin). to the gondola (destination). That is, the consumer paid $3.5 for every $1 the producer received.
On average, the producer’s participation explained 31.4% of the final sales prices. The largest participation was for strawberry producers (81%), while the smallest was for lemon producers (8.1%).
The gap: fruit and vegetable growers and livestock farmers
IPOD fruit and vegetable: from the field to the shelf, the prices of the 19 fruits and vegetables that make up the IPOD basket multiplied by 4.3 times in April, which represents a decrease of 6.5% compared to March.
IPOD livestock: for the five livestock products and by-products that make up the IPOD basket, the consumer paid 3.2 times more than what the producer received, 3.3% more than last month.
It should be noted that according to the CAME Retail Sales Index, sales of the food and beverage category accumulated a drop of 23.8% in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2023, reflecting the decrease in purchasing power and lack of price validation by the consumer. That is, the decline is explained by a decrease in demand.
Furthermore, during the first four months of the year, all links in the different value chains have seen their profitability affected by the sharp increases in costs, not only due to the devaluation, but also to the increase in transportation and logistics, electricity, gas. , patents and real estate taxes, leases, fuels, fertilizers and machinery spare parts, to name a few.
“The primary producer is not a price maker. Although some products with a high incidence in the basket (such as, for example, onion and tomato) presented a rearrangement in producer prices, these values did not compensate for the accumulated inflation , so the first link (origin-producer) continues to give up profitability compared to the rest of the actors in the value chain. That is, the price formation structure in Argentina is born in the shelf and disintegrates backwards, until. reach the producer, when it should be the other way around,” the report noted.
Bigger gaps
Lemon (12.3 times), tangerine (6.9), orange (6.3), pear (5.9) and pork (5.6) were the five products that presented the greatest difference between origin and destination prices.
Lemon, like orange, registered an increase in supply caused by low demand. While the prices of the former fell 16.7% at the producer and 2.6% at the shelf, the sweet citrus presented a decrease of 20.4% at origin and 5.7% at destination.
The Mandarin, for its part, showed another behavior: although its price increased to the producer (14.1%), a drop was observed at the consumer level (14%).
In the particular case of pears, producer prices did not register variations, while on the shelf an increase of 1% was seen.
Finally, there is pork, a product that fell 11.5% at origin and 3% at destination.
Smaller gaps
The five products that presented the smallest difference between the price received by the producer and that paid by the consumer are part of the fruit and vegetable basket.
The strawberry (1.2 times) – star fruit that everyone needs to have on the shelf – was the product with the smallest field-shelf gap of the month, increasing its prices at both ends of the chain: 48% at origin and 13.2% at destination. The situation is the result of low production due to inclement weather, which leads to an increase in prices.
Pumpkin and onion presented the same price difference between origin and destination (1.9), but had different behavior: the former increased 58.3% for the producer and fell 0.8% for the consumer; while onions increased 7% at origin and 14.7% at destination.
Finally, the round tomato and the pepper presented a gap of 2.1 times. Their prices increased both to the producer (177.4% and 82.3%, respectively) and to the consumer (37.6% and 33.9%, respectively).