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RIO E BRASÍLIA – For the second time in less than a week, President Jair Bolsonaro called on supermarket owners Tuesday to lower food prices. The rebound in basic food products, triggered by the appreciation of the dollar, the increase in exports and the low season, took the government by surprise, which is preparing to cut the amount of emergency aid by half.
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The president, however, affirmed that he will not intervene, and the Minister of Agriculture, Tereza Cristina, guaranteed that there will be no shortage.
The emergency aid of R $ 600 per month paid to more than 60 million people guaranteed the maintenance of consumption in recent months.
– I have appealed to them. Nobody is going to use a Bic pen to write down anything, there is no tabulation, but I am asking that the benefit of these basic products in the supermarket be close to zero – Bolsonaro said.
Beans, rice, meat, milk and soybean oil have already risen dramatically and more are expected as wholesale prices remain high.
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Export control
This Tuesday, the Brazilian Association of Procons and the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) requested the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, to monitor exports to ensure domestic supply after the increase in sales abroad has been designated as one. factors for price increases.
– We call on the federal government to monitor and monitor (the situation). And, suddenly, it set export caps to guarantee domestic supply. And that eventually they will invest in family agriculture and rural cooperatives, which will not export, will generate jobs and will still move the regional economy – says Filipe Vieira, president of ProconsBrasil.
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According to André Braz, an economist at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), one of the main factors behind this rise in prices is the rise in the dollar. In August of last year, the coin was worth R $ 4.02. One year later, R $ 5.46, an increase of 36%.
This devaluation of the real caused the prices of products such as soybeans, corn and meat, which are priced internationally in dollars, to rise even more. In addition, it made the Brazilian product more competitive in the foreign market, causing production to be directed abroad.
– With the higher dollar, Brazilian exports gain competitiveness. A greater example is meat. China has been buying all kinds of meat and increasing international demand – says the economist.
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The president has been the target of constant questions on social media about the price increase. Today it was the turn of the young 10-year-old youtuber Esther, invited by Bolsonaro to participate in a ministerial meeting, to ask if the value of rice “will increase more.”
– Tereza Cristina, will the rice go up or down? Bolsonaro asked.
– Rice won’t be missing. He’s high now, but we’re gonna get him down. God willing, we are going to have a super harvest ”, replied the minister.
Rice follows the logic of the international market: the price has risen and exports have become more advantageous. The product had an increase of 15.69% in the year until July, but, in the wholesale market, the stock market has been rising systematically. In August, it was up 39%.
According to ProconsBrasil, there are already records of a five kilogram bag of rice, which costs R $ 40, which even inspired memes on social networks.
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Limited purchases
Last week, the issue of price increases was brought to the federal government by the consumer protection entity and the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras), which warned about the possibility of shortages in stores. In some units of two chains in Rio, this week, they began to adopt purchase limits, per customer.
One reported that it limited the purchase to ten kilos of rice and five units of soybean oil, per customer, indefinitely to ensure that more people can make purchases. In a competing chain, in Botafogo, the strategy is repeated: each customer can buy a reduced number of units of soybean oil and rice.
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However, FGC’s Braz explains that some price increases are temporary. This is the case for products such as milk and dairy products:
– In winter, the grass is drier, the cat does not eat well, production falls, the producer needs to supplement with feed and prices rise. But it is a concentrated effect, since since the end of September, the beginning of October, prices are already falling again.
(Cássia Almeida, Ana Clara Veloso, Nice de Paula, Gabriel Shinohara, Victor Farias and Gustavo Maia)
