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VERSIÓN ESPAÑOL
Tomatazo
Hace algunos años, el gobierno de la democracia más grande del mundo temblaba por el precio de la cebolla, un ingrediente clave de la cocina de la India, tal como hoy en la Argentina el precio del tomate es una cuestión al rojo vivo. Si bien el gobierno tiene todas las posibilidades de sobrevivir (como ocurrió finalmente también en Nueva Delhi), el costo astronómico del tomate no dejó muy bien parada a la candidata presidencial del oficialismo, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, cuando el lunes dijo en Pilar ante la Asociación Empresaria Argentina (AEA) que los precios eran “razonables”.
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Some years ago the government of the world’s largest democracy was trembling because of the price of onions, a key element in the Indian cuisine — today in Argentina the price of tomatoes is a burning issue. Even though the government stands every chance of surviving (as its New Delhi counterpart finally did), the astronomic cost of tomatoes did not place the ruling party’s presidential candidate Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the best light when she was telling AEA businessmen in Pilar on Monday that prices were “reasonable.” Her face should have been as red as the latter-day luxury with the price of a kilo of the scarlet fruit coming close to a crimson 20-peso banknote at times (as opposed to the 3.99 pesos claimed by INDEC statistics bureau), bleeding consumers dry and making purée out of household budgets.
But perhaps it is just as well the administration is not responding because their intervention would probably only make the situation worse when the problem is perfectly self-correcting beyond any government action or even the consumer boycott announced on Monday. In fact, Chinese supermarkets (who understand the laws of the market better than anybody) were already cutting back on their tomato purchases ahead of the consumer boycott while, far more importantly, the consumers themselves were massively imposing a boycott long ahead of its organization and announcement. Argentina has such a wealth of farm produce, including fruits and vegetables, that there is no lack of food alternatives and substitutes — there should be far more price elasticity than there is in this sector. Unsold tomatoes are already piling up at the greengrocers and wholesalers, which should bring prices back to normal before too long.
If this has not happened already (wholesale prices have been halved but the result has yet to be seen at the greengrocers), this is the fault of an Argentine economic flaw which will not go away as easily as high tomato prices — namely, the curse of the middlemen. In this respect the Argentine economy is as over-centralized as the country with the middlemen posted at key points of the price chain like robber barons along mediaeval European roads and waterways. And the government itself fully subscribes to this rapacious mentality with export duties stretching back over half a century in time. The farmer (who has been doing very nicely in recent years thanks to the global commodity price boom) might be the one paying that levy and thus the most immediate claimant to victim status but why not spare a thought for the urban consumer at the other end of the equation?
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