Sergio Massa remains firm in his idea of setting foot in the Central Market, although the idea of the agency becoming a super-importer to combat the rise in prices cools.
As Clarin anticipated last week, the minister will appoint the leader of the Renewal Front Raul Diaz as representative of the Nation in the board of directors of the Market.
Currently, Díaz is dean of Humanities at the National University of the West, vice president of Intercargo SAU and leader of the Southern Group of the Frente Renovador.
The Central Market is a tripartite entity: it is managed by the Nation, the province of Buenos Aires and CABA. At the beginning of Alberto Fernández's government, Nahuel Levaggi, linked to the Union of Land Workers (UTT), led by Juan Grabois, was elected president. That administration ended after a barrage of criticism and now appears as president Aníbal Stella, linked to the Peronism of La Matanza. The representative of the City is Ezequiel Capelli.
Now the triumvirate that leads the Market will be integrated by Díaz, Stella and Capelli. Massa's intention is that it is Díaz who leads the day to day of the Market and from that place price agreements are encouraged.
Ten days ago, with April's inflation hit of 8.4%, the highest monthly figure in 21 years, Massa announced a package of measures to curb the increases.
In that rosary of promise, the Government proposed that the Central Market would have a new role as an "importer of fresh food", to counteract the rise in prices.
The idea ran up against the status of the market that does not enable it to make direct imports. The stallholders who work in the Tapiales property and who pay a fee that can reach $ 400,000 per month maintain that the Market is not authorized to sell to merchants and final consumers who go there to stock up and that doing so would be unfair competition.
And they point out that imported products do not exceed 5% of the total fruits and vegetables sold there. The main product imported is bananas: 80% of what is sold in the country comes from Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Now, with the arrival of Diaz, it will be sought to lower the tone of the creation of the importing entity and replace it with monitoring so that the import is only launched when there are problems with local production.
Given the inflationary jump, the economic team pointed against imported products, which they blame for part of the jump in the April index. Thus, last week the AFIP and Customs landed the Market to control ten importers.
The operation generated a lot of controversy, because it scared the buyers who approached the property and ended without any record being drawn up. The only official information was the dissemination of photos of AFIP/Customs agents looking at the drawers, which was interpreted by the stallholders as an attempt to intimidate them.
Last Monday the representatives of the Federation of Potato Producers, the Chamber of Fruit and Vegetable Operators (Comafru) and ComBaires had a meeting with the Secretary of Commerce Matías Tombolini.
There it was proposed that they will continue with the policy of price agreement that until now applies to some products. On May 2, fixed prices were established for 90 days, until July 31. In that agreement, among other products, the kilo of onion is sold at $ 60, that of pumpkin at $ 100 and the apple at $ 260, always at the wholesale level.
The intention of Massa's team is to extend these agreements and monitor the entry of imported products. According to Clarín, the idea that it is the Market itself that imports for now was set aside, but at the same time the stallholders were warned that if they notice shortages or unjustified increases, they could facilitate other alternatives for the entry of more imported products.
AQ
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