RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Members of the Argentinean Congress, together with social organizations, have presented a draft law for state-supported networks of small-scale food producers. The aim is to set up a government-owned company that will, in the future, be in charge of promoting and selling products from small farmers and regional small businesses.
A draft law to this end is soon to be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies. “We need to start discussing food sovereignty, food monopolies, and pricing,” says Federico Fagioli, member of the government alliance “Frente de Todos” and an official of the popular organization “Patria Grande”.
“We must curb those sectors that control distribution, speculate in food, and set their prices.” Currently, both production and sales are in the hands of a handful of monopolies. Concurrently, there are thousands of small-scale producers affected who have no support whatsoever.
The key point of the project now being proposed is the creation by the state of a public food enterprise which would be in charge of promoting and selling the goods of small-scale producers. This company is to set up several regional packaging and distribution centers where the products are received and distributed under a common brand. Delivery will be made directly from these centers, both to individual consumers and to wholesalers and large-scale suppliers such as institutions, schools, or community centers.
By removing intermediaries, costs should be reduced and price speculation should be prevented.
In a first step, non-perishable products such as flour, rice, legumes, pasta, sugar, cooking oil, cereals, spices, dried fruit, and mate are to be sold. A key aspect of the plan is the already existing self-organized distribution structures in the popular sector.
These include the “Market of Popular Consumption” (MeCoPo) network, which organizes markets in the greater Buenos Aires area, where purchases can be made directly from small-scale producers. In an interview with Eva Verde from the social organization “Popular Front Darío Santillán”, which set up MeCoPo, she stresses the significance of its influence on the whole production and distribution chain. “Price stability is achieved where there is a fair pricing policy along the entire chain.”
Verde also criticizes the current system of state price control by setting fixed retail prices for a number of basic products. “This system ultimately penalizes small producers, because companies always want high profit margins. So prices are adjusted by pushing down the purchase prices of small producers.”
In the wake of the current coronavirus crisis, the existing food supply disparities in Argentina are particularly evident.
In the second half of March, for instance, an above-average increase in the prices of basic foodstuffs was recorded, which is mainly due to market speculation. In early April, the Argentine government, therefore, issued a decree freezing the prices of basic foodstuffs at the same levels as in early March.