La Jornada: They agree on fair prices and tomato supply

President Claudia Sheinbaum signed this Wednesday with representatives of supply centers, markets and self-service chains the National Agreement for the Regulation of the Production, Supply, Marketing and Fair Price of Tomatoes, which is aimed at guaranteeing the supply of this product and maintaining accessible prices for the population.

The meeting, originally scheduled for the National Palace, was moved to the Ministry of Economy due to the mobilization of teachers.

“Today we signed with producers from 18 states of the Republic and with marketers from supply centers and self-service stores, an agreement to guarantee the production of tomato for the national market before export and an ordering scheme that allows lowering the price of tomato. For the good of all, the poor first,” the president said in a brief message on her social networks.

Also through social networks, Columba López, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, highlighted that the agreement is an initiative that, “under the vision of our President and the voluntary participation of actors in the productive chain, strengthens productive planning, promotes direct marketing and contributes to building fairer conditions for those who produce and consume.”

He highlighted that producers, marketers and input suppliers join forces in order to build a fairer value chain for tomatoes.

For the moment, said sources who were present and preferred not to be cited, the agreement only has a general scope, given that precise commitments, measurable goals or monitoring mechanisms that allow evaluating its compliance have not yet been made known.

In the market, data from the last week of May show a downward correction at various points in the saladet tomato chain. The drop was most pronounced in the export price, which went from $89.12 per box in April to $43.45, a reduction of 26.7 percent in the week. Declines were also recorded in wholesale markets.

According to monitoring by the Agricultural Market Consulting Group, the average wholesale price fell 16.2 percent in one week, settling at 26.15 pesos per kilogram, compared to 31.20 the previous week. At the Central de Abasto in Mexico City, tomatoes were sold at 25 pesos per kilo, almost 10 percent less than in April.

However, the consumer price remains high. At the end of May it stood at 52.04 pesos per kilo, above the levels of March, when it was around 43 pesos. The weekly reduction was 6.9 percent, although the gap between the wholesale price and that paid by the final buyer is still considerable.

Juan Carlos Anaya, general director of the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group, pointed out that the price trajectory in June will be conditioned by the available supply in the main producing areas, climatic conditions and the behavior of demand in the domestic and export markets. “The announced agreement represents a political signal of coordination between the different participants in the tomato commercial chain; however, its practical scope is still uncertain due to the absence of specific commitments and verifiable compliance mechanisms,” he noted.