The increase in gas, electricity, inputs, and parity rates that have already been carried out in the province of Buenos Aires and that are expected between March and April in the rest of the country, could influence a new rise in bread prices , warn representatives of the sector to PROFILE.
The Argentine Federation Unión Personal Panaderías y Afines (Fauppa) reopened negotiations and agreements for an increase of 17%, with which bakery employees in the province of Buenos Aires increased their salaries by 102% year-on-year. “They asked for 25%, a figure that was reduced to 17% in two installments,” says Emilio Majori, head of the Industrial Center for Bakers in La Matanza. In prices, adds Majori, “not only the salary increase affects”, but also “the massive increase in raw materials and everything in general”, especially gasoline. “The Government says that it increases 5%, but gasoline is super. In diesel, which is what most of the new engines are using, the increase is much higher, ”he concluded.
Fruits and vegetables, protagonists of the increases this summer
“We sit down again to give the increase, which will be around between 20% and 25%, and in July we will sit down again,” said José Álvarez, head of the Buenos Aires Bakers Chamber of Industrialists. For Álvarez, the salary will not have to significantly affect the price of bread, as electricity and gas rates do.
Just as the costs are different within the province of Buenos Aires, they are also different in the different regions of the country. Meanwhile, according to the latest data from INDEC, the price of French bread is on average $435 in Greater Buenos Aires, in Cuyo the value increases to $331, and in the Pampas and Patagonia areas $392 and $418 respectively. Meanwhile, and according to the same body, between December and January 2023 the monthly price variation was 1.7%, although these variations also had differences by region.
Gerardo Di Cosco, president of the Rosario Industrial Bakers and Related Association, affirmed that, although the salary has an incidence of between “18% and 21% in costs”, the main problem for the sector “is the inflation that affects considerably in all the inputs that we have for manufacturing or the bakery and confectionery industry, which are later transferred to the counter”.
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