Guanajuato intends to stabilize the price of tortillas in 2023

Due to the fact that the local economies and the finances of the citizens have been more pressured by the high inflation and an upward cycle of the interest rate, added to the fact that there is a shortage of corn from the national and international levels, Guanajuato prepares to start this 2023 with a package of actions focused on stabilizing tortilla prices.

In an interview, the head of the entity’s Secretariat for Sustainable Economic Development (SDES), Ramón Alfaro Gómez, announced that in this month of January the governor, Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo, will present the actions that seek to maintain the kilo of tortilla at 22 pesos, which is the same price that was handled in 2022.

“It is so that prices do not rise, so that there is not a significant impact on the purchasing power of Guanajuato families. We are working on this and we are going to strengthen it, we are going to alleviate inflation, which is a worrying variable and comes hand in hand with interest rates and the financial cost for companies”, he pointed out.

Among the actions that will be carried out, he pointed out that they are focused on making agreements with the private sector located in the entity, especially that belonging to the agro-industrial sector, as well as those of commerce and services.

Without revealing the investment amounts yet, he explained that a financing scheme is also being prepared, with Guanajuato Funds, to guarantee the supply of corn and thus strengthen the entire chain until 2024, integrated from the producer, through the industrial sector, to the consumer.

“We are going to strengthen our financial schemes with soft and flexible loans. We are already formalizing the agreements so that a fundamental product in Guanajuato in the country, which is the tortilla, does not increase its price. The governor will announce it soon, according to the support mechanisms they will allow us to keep the price of the tortilla stable during 2023 ”, he said.

Alliances

On the possibility of carrying out other actions aimed at the rest of the products of the basic basket, Alfaro Gómez did not rule out that more measures are carried out, he even revealed that they are already in talks to make alliances based on what is registered with corn.

“Surely we are going to find other alliances so that in all the chains in all the main products of the basic basket, we can make compensation actions, it is also to compensate this situation of the increase in interest rates. We are starting with the price of the tortilla so that it is stable and we hope together with Agricultural Development, with Social Development and those of us who are part of the economic axis we can continue reinforcing actions to compensate ”, he commented.

According to the monthly information on daily tortilla prices in tortilla shops and supermarkets in Mexico from the federal Ministry of Economy, Guanajuato was found on December 26 in the 10th place of the states with the lowest price per kilo of tortilla, with 21.67 pesos.

Above the Guanajuatense entity were Michoacán with 21.43 pesos, Aguascalientes with 21.33 pesos, San Luis Potosí with 21 pesos, Durango with 20.25 pesos, Mexico City with 20.03 pesos, Zacatecas with 20 pesos, State of Mexico with 19 pesos, while Tlaxcala and Puebla with 16 pesos.

Guanajuato is not one of the only entities that has sought to alleviate the inflationary effect. For example, during 2022 the Michoacán without Famine strategy was presented, which was the first package of actions at the state level that seeks to complement the Package Against Inflation and Famine (Pacic), an agreement presented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

According to the governor of Michoacán, Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, the strategy, like the Pacic, intends to implement a series of public policies to stop the rise in the prices of the basic basket, especially with corn, either through incentives for production , cost reduction, transport price control and alliances with companies.

Due to these measures, and according to the latest monitoring carried out by the Secretariat of Economic Development (Sedeco), on December 23 and 24, the municipality of Uruapan registered the lowest cost of the basic basket, for an amount of 999 pesos; in Morelia for a total of 1,010 pesos; Apatzingán of 1,098 pesos; Zamora with a price of 996 pesos and Zitácuaro, with a cost of 997 pesos.

estados@eleconomista.mx