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BRASILIA – Hours after an agency of the Ministry of Justice notified food producing and distributing companies demanding explanations about the high increase in prices of the items that make up Brazil’s basic food basket, President Jair Bolsonaro said the government it will not interfere with the market “in any way”.
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He said he had spoken with “supermarket officials” who were “working hard” to reduce the value of food, and attributed the increase to emergency aid and export growth due to the dollar exchange rate.
Bolsonaro was speaking with supporters upon his arrival at the Palacio de la Alvorada when one of them thanked him for his emergency assistance. The president then announced:
– I spoke with two supermarket authorities, okay? At the end of the line, the price hits them and they are working hard to reduce the price of the basic food basket, which, given the emergency aid, has seen a small increase in consumption. There was also more export for the dollar, we know that.
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And I add:
– The rice farmers, the rice planters, they were lost for more than ten years, but that is normalizing. We will not interfere in the market in any way, there is no pen to solve the problem of the economy.
Throughout the day, he met with the Ministers of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Tereza Cristina, and received the president of the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras), João Sanzovo Neto.
Abras, which published a warning letter about the increases last week, was one of those notified by the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon), an agency of the Ministry of Justice, to explain the increase in the value of items such as rice, beans, milk and soybean oil.
In total, Senacom sought clarification from ten companies and associations in the food production industry and 21 distribution networks. The deadline to respond to the notification is ten days.
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Upon leaving the meeting with the president at the Planalto Palace, Sanzovo Neto said that businessmen will not be “villains” for something for which they are not “responsible.” In recent days, Bolsonaro has been appealing to supermarkets for a reduction in the profit margin on basic food products.
The association leader stated that the profit margin on basic products, such as rice, is very low, due to market competition, and that, currently, supermarket owners are selling below what it would cost to replace the product , once the entrepreneurs work with stocks and average cost.
Still speaking with his followers, Bolsonaro said:
– When they criticized me back there, what did I say? Viruses and employment. People said: stay home and the economy comes later. Despite that, I forgive anyone who said that. Even many politicians knew he was right, but out of shame … many politicians wanted to be on the crest of the wave, taking care of life, the bad guy was me. Now I forgive, okay? We were on the right track and we are working hard to bring the economy up to speed.
