Shortage of milk, oil and grains: a 'checkmate' to the pocket of the Mexicans

A woman in front of an empty supermarket shelf in Mexico City. Monica Gonzalez (EL PAIS)

In addition to high food prices, a new element puts the final blow to the finances of Mexicans: scarcity and shortages.

Food and basic consumer products such as milk, toilet paper, bottled water (derived from the drought that is devastating much of Mexico) put a new degree of pressure on the already affected pockets of Mexicans.

Although the Government of Mexico has decided to put a brake on the rise in price, the basket of basic products continues to rise.

According to an analysis carried out by the National Alliance of Small Merchants (Anpec), among which are the 24 products of the basic basket presented by Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his Package against inflation and famine (Pacic), it shows that 20 products registered price increases, while only four registered a decrease.

"The food inflation that has been plaguing the household economy in recent times, at the end of May, shows a national price index above 7.72% and food inflation in more than 11.32% , Mexicans have resisted and suffered another month of limited and poor quality consumption”, says Anpec.

The element that most worries the merchants of grocery stores and small merchants in Mexico is the shortage of food and products.

Among the main products, toilet paper, edible oils, bottled water, soft drinks, grains and edible oil are the ones that show significant increases due to shortages.

"There is a lack of merchandise that was regularly part of the shelves due to irregular and late supply, leading customers to repeatedly not be able to find what they are looking to buy," says Cuauhtémoc Rivera, president of Anpec.

"Every time we have a market with fewer products and there is a very thin line that divides scarcity from shortage," he points out.

Delays in the production chain of key products cause considerable increases.

For example, canola oil, a base product for the preparation of stews and dishes, went from 38.5 pesos to 50.8 pesos (about 2.5 dollars) from April to May, an increase of 32% in recent weeks. .

David Lozano, a researcher at the Center for Multidisciplinary Analysis of the Faculty of Economics at UNAM, indicates in an interview that the phenomenon of shortages or scarcity of products, due to low supply and high demand, has an additional ingredient.

"At this point in the year there should already be conditions for certain products, that's why there are increases," he says.

“Famine is no longer defined as a lack of food, but rather as the impossibility of the population to acquire products at overpriced prices”, he points out.

Meanwhile, the price index of the Minimum Consumption Basket (CCM) prepared by the Inegi and which considers 176 products and services, shows a slight decrease in the last month, but is still higher than the monthly inflation data, since takes into account products that the basic basket does not include.

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