In the midst of the galloping advance of inflation, the Undersecretary of Consumer Defense and Commercial Loyalty, an area that depends on the Ministry of Economy, plans to carry out
new studies on the value chains of some products in the basic basket.
“We need to have information about
what are the instances in the formation of prices
, basically for the foods that people consume the most and that increased a lot in the last year,” confided a high-ranking source from the Undersecretary who is currently in charge. by Fernando Blanco Muiño.
The official was also national director of Consumer Defense during the government of Mauricio Macri.
The value chain is
the sequence of activities that add value to a product or service
.
That is, the job of the portfolio will be to monitor the actions that the company takes during the process of creating and developing its products, which allow it to sell them at a higher price.
This traceability in price formation can be used to
analyze the value created by a company and its comparison with other companies in its sector,
and even from different sectors.
According to the official source, this analysis helps determine the company's competitive advantage.
"For consumers, it is also a useful instrument to understand where the amount that the merchant intends to charge for a certain product or service comes from," added the official source.
The idea of the Undersecretariat, now with multiple functions, is to begin by analyzing
the value chain of the most essential foods for family consumption, such as oil, rice, and also fruits and vegetables.
This analysis will be done “by product,” commented the official source, although it has not yet been defined which will be the first articles analyzed.
From the private sector, these types of surveys have also been carried out, given that food is an item that has been registering increases above general inflation.
In 2023, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 211%, while food and beverages grew 251.3%
.
Increases in food prices have a strong impact on the budget of families, especially those with lower incomes who allocate a greater percentage of their income to purchasing these products.
According to a recent report from the Chamber of Medium Enterprises (CAME), in December 2023
the prices of agri-food multiplied by 3.5 times from the field (origin) to the shelf (destination)
.
That is, the consumer paid $3.5 for every $1 the producer received.
On average, according to this analysis, producer participation explained 26.3% of final sales prices.
The largest participation was for strawberry producers (52%), while the smallest was for red apple producers (11%), according to the results of the latest Price Index at Origin and Destination (IPOD) prepared by the sector. of Regional Economies of CAME.
An ingredient that
plays in shaping prices are taxes
.
According to the Agricultural Foundation for the Development of Argentina (FADA), 25% of the final price of food is made up of taxes.
Therefore, they have a significant impact on production costs and the commercial chain.