There are five food products that resist deflating and put pressure on the June index

The tax burden represents up to 25% of the value of food paid by consumers. Inflation in this area, which was an average of 5.8% in May according to INDEC, behaved unevenly: at least five basic necessities rose well above this percentage.

The round tomato, for example, grew in price by 38.4% compared to April. However, according to the latest study by the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME), producers are left with just 19.7%. The rest of the value is explained by components such as seasonality, distribution expenses and direct and indirect taxes, which are paid for producing and transporting the product. Salvador Femenía, CAME’s press secretary, explained to PERFIL that “this is not a good time for the tomato supply” because, although seasonality does not have the impact it had at other times in history, it does not stop having weight in the quality and price of the products.

According to the Argentine Institute of Fiscal Analysis “the existence of 148 different types of taxes throughout our country was identified”, among which are taxes, rates, contributions and rights. Much of the final costs of food are made up precisely by these charges.

Sugar (29.1%), rice (18%), French bread (13.1%), milk and eggs (9.8%) were the ones that increased the most in May.

According to the Agricultural Foundation for the Development of Argentina (FADA), a quarter of the price that Argentines consume is explained by taxes. The Foundation analyzed the composition of the prices of three basic products, such as meat, bread and milk. The study concluded that one out of every four pesos of the final price are taxes, and that three out of four of these taxes are national.

Regarding the price of bread, according to FADA, it is composed as follows: “wheat represents 13%, the mill 4%, the bakery 60% and taxes 23%.” Of the price found in the gondola, only 13.6% is profit, but the taxes take more than the producer. Meanwhile, 77.4% of taxes are national. Those with the greatest participation are VAT (45%), Earnings (25.7%) and Gross Income (18.9%).

For milk, which also increased above average inflation, the consumer pays a large percentage of taxes. “If the composition of the price of the milk sachet is analyzed, from primary production to the final consumer, 74.8% are production costs.”

Eight out of ten households borrowed from businesses or non-bank entities

In summary, the price per liter of milk is explained as follows: dairy farm 31%, industry 28%, trade 16% and taxes 25%. Of taxes, 78.4% are national, 17.1% provincial and 4.5% municipal. VAT represents in this case 68.6%.

Eggs, which also increase their price above the inflation level of May, have a greater participation of the producer in the value chain. According to CAME, this value represents 48.7% of the final price. This is explained by the integrated production systems, “which means that all the actors in their respective value chains are part of the business risk,” they detailed.

Regarding the rest of the products that increase the most, the members of FADA and CAME, who periodically carry out this type of study, told PERFIL that it is difficult to make measurements on the composition of prices on this occasion, due to the dispersion and lack of of references when making these calculations.

Food slows down in the first half of the month

Food accumulated price increases of 1.3% during the first half of June, thus maintaining a slowdown in relation to what happened during May.

The data comes from a report by the LCG consultancy, which specified an increase in food values ​​of 0.74% in the second week of this month.

In this way, inflation from “end to end” between the last fortnight of May and the first two weeks of June marks a price increase of 5.2%.

In May, the item increased 5.8% and was below the general CPI

Meanwhile, the increases in the second week of June were led by beverages and infusions (3.1%), dairy products (2.2%), sugar (2%), baked goods (1.7%), oils (0.9%) and vegetables (0.7%). On the other hand, and during this same period, meat and fruit contributed with falls of 1%.

“The percentage of products with weekly increases was 20% and remains below the average for the third consecutive week,” said the consultant’s report.

On the other hand, when averaging the last four weeks, the evolution of prices was as follows: oil increased 15%, dairy products and eggs 10.3%, sugar 9.7%, baked goods 7.7 %, drinks 6.5%, meats 3.8% and fruits climbed 3%.

Always according to the LCG data, meat still reflects a delay in terms of inflation of 10.6% compared to the rest of the foods measured since June.

The consultant carries out this survey through the web scraping modality, evaluating 8 thousand products in five supermarkets.