Tombolini met with food companies to talk about prices, dollars and shortages

With explicit request for support from the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, (“Your task is not easy”, he said), the Commerce Secretary, Matías Tombolini, held a meeting with Copal, an entity led by Daniel Funes de Rioja and representing the food industry. The official raised 3 hot topics for discussion: increase in prices, supply and lack of dollars.

The exchange took place during a lunch that took place this Wednesday at noon in the city center, in the exclusive Club Alemán restaurant. The companies they focused on import difficulties and the shortage of foreign currency, something Tombolini has promised to review, at least in the most critical cases. But in turn, he has put forward his plan to reformulate the prices of assistance by consensus and reported the shortage of oils and flours. Both products “are subsidized by the state and we don’t see it reflected in the gondolas,” she said.

Tombolini attended accompanied by the Undersecretary for External Commercial Management, Germán Cervantes, the person in charge of the administration of SIMI (import permits) and the Undersecretary for Internal Market Policies, Anastasia Daicich. The Secretary of Commerce told food companies that the speech is only the kick-off and that Massa himself “is very willing to listen and act” in the face of possible problems.

As for service pricing, he anticipated that he intends to do so shrink your cart and add even more products from leading brands with the aim of establishing references to consumers and “limiting price dispersion”. By way of presentation, Tombolini explained that he will start negotiations with producers and suppliers starting next month.

As head of order monitoring for the entry of goods from abroad, Cervantes explained that “import levels are being reviewed sector by sector” and that the government is trying to create a new mechanism to manage the lack of dollars “to articulate with the Central a systemic rule” to give companies predictability and “take a very clear 2023“.

The government has made it known that they work a new advance declaration scheme through the Complete System for Monitoring Payments Abroad for Services (SIMPES), which allows companies to analyze fiscal compliance and financial economic capacity (CEF). Import today has three phases. The first is the CEF, a group of indicators whose formula is defined by AFIP. Then there are the licenses approved by the Ministry of Commerce and, finally, the authorization of the Central Bank to access the dollars at their official value.

After the meeting with Copal executives, Tombolini headed to the Ministry of Economy. There he will hold a second meeting, which will be attended by Massa and the head of the BCRA, Miguel Pesce. On the other hand, there will be senior executives from 6 leading brands: Arcor, Molinos, Quilmes, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. The expectation was to address a similar topic: rising prices and a lack of dollars.