The Bondiola Effect: In the pork meat business, strong imports from Brazil contributed to the rise in public prices

Pork sector consultant Juan Luis Uccelli developed a simple chart to understand why the common saying that imports serve to domesticate internal prices and control inflation does not always work. The import policy in the case of pork meat looks more than vigorous. Between January and May, pork meat imports, especially from Brazil, have been 24,303 tons. In the first five months of 2024, that same product had entered with 3,939 tons, which "demonstrates that the increase in purchases was gross," in the specialist's opinion. Uccelli also highlighted that in these first five months "more was imported than the entire year 2024," when official records mark pork meat entries of 19,351 tons. Up to here, the hard data. Did these imports serve to lower consumer prices, as the government preaches? Uccelli responded to that questioning: "Imports generally have, according to what the Government proposes, the purpose of lowering the prices consumers pay. Unfortunately, in pork meat, this has ...