Argentina To Ban Some Foreign Foods, Beverages
Do you like Pringles? How about fiery Tabasco sauce or JIF peanut butter?
What about Philadelphia Cream Cheese, ranch dressing or Hershey’s chocolate?
How about Scotch whisky?
If you like any of these things, or any other kind of imported food, you might be unhappy to learn that such goods may soon disappear from local stores.
Starting June 1, the government plans to ban food and drink imports if the products have an Argentine-made equivalent.
Nope, I’m not making this up. Indeed, I spent half the day Thursday confirming this with major retailers and industry executives who are familiar with the government’s plans.
So if the government goes ahead with its plans, you may need to say goodbye to those yummy treats and get used to eating more of the home-grown stuff. The ban does not apply to “foreign” products – say, Kellogg’s cereals, for example – that are produced in Argentina.
The article I wrote isn’t available online, but La Nación, which broke the news, has a story here (in Spanish) with more details.
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Great. I’m returning to Argentina in a week after 6 months in the US and now I don’t want to go back.
Pringles and Philadelphia are my favorites.
OMG! What about my weekly 2 half liter cans of Grolsch, that special taste from my area of birth? Am I being forced to drink that horse p*ss made by quilmes? Or Garotto? They make chocolate here to no? When will this madness stop?
Seriously, this will give the local producers the green light to screw up their products more than they are already doing and sell them for even more ridiculous prices…
Speaking as a local producer ( just for me though, not the industry ), there was already inflationary pressure. This just helps take the foot off the break or at the very least the foot isn’t covering the break anymore. Ingredients have been going up and if you pair that with shortages, well you are going to most likely get more inflation. I hate raising prices, but I just wanted to add that at least for us it is not a lack of competition that drives our prices up, but rather an increase in costs.
One other area of concern would be how the trading partners will react. In my industry you have a Brazilian giant in Bauducco that is going to get the boot. I wonder if Brazil would kick me out of their market as a result?
I am also in Spain, France, and Chile. Will they retaliate and kick me out?
However, it would also be deadly for me to have competing foreign products at cheaper prices than the local ones. It’s more of a sign that not all is right with your local economy. It’s time to fasten your seatbelts for some more Argentine drama.
Introducing the next Argentine crisis….
Frank, the Europe is falling apart, the Chinese markets are almost the most powerful force in the market economy (and that’s why it is being destroyed on purpose by the very same western societies that created it). Argentina is rich in minerals, raw materials, oil reserves… and you have the best educated, most effective workforce in the entire South America. The only real problem is that Menem sold everything of any value that Argentina owned. If you were to adopt an economical model (no social and political), you would have to look at the only country in this world, that claims to pay its entire debt off by 2030 or earlier and eneregetically/weaponly and technologically most developed country in this world – Russia. Abundant sources of energy and oil in Argentina is what draw Russians to you and Venezuela. When they are finished, you will be paying their luxory and be even poorer. That’s what Mrs Kirchner signed in the past month.
Oops, just to clarify. I meant to use Brazil as a hypothetical. I am not in that market, but I am trying to get in. I am in the other ones I mentioned though.
Can you imagine what the shelves will look like in Barrio Chino?? Empty.
Oh yeah, socialist market system. Wow. But I guess it’s just fair. Americas have never gone through Socialism or Communism, so it was just a matter of time, before these kinds of repressions came. From the richest nation in the beginning of the 20th century to the poorest and literally torn society by the end of the 2050. Well done, Mr Alfonsin, Menem, de la Rua, Puerta, Saa, Camano, Duhalde and Kirchners and others to come. You’ve managed to bring the Argentinean society to a new area!
And I considered emigrating there! Not anymore I don’t. This will lead to what I’ve been through already. Why don’t Argentineans study the Western/Eastern block in Europe and current situation in the world? Why are they about to repeat the most fundamental mistakes of the 20th century?
If I were to speak to Mrs Kirchner, I would say just one thing: “I’ve lived in your future. And it didn’t work!”
I could get angry about this – and I would if I lived in Argentina – but it is just very disheartening and sad to watch Argentina continually commit fundamental economic mistakes. I’d like to blame Menem for this actually – the country was in the right place at the time to make good changes and he screwed it all up through corruption and keeping the peso pegged far too long.
What does this mean for vodka? Are we going to have to drink Argentine vodka? ughh….
Has anyone tasted Argentine tequila? You know…the bottle that says 25% tequila on it? Sad days are coming.
Welcome to Protectionism 3.0 + Socialism 2.0!
What about Jack Daniels ? Or should I not leave home without it ?
Great. Take anything away any superior quality product which already costs double because you are “punished” for wanting something of decent quality. Then decrease the horrific quality of everything already produced here and then jack up those prices. This country is a big joke. I hope everything crashes, the thieves in power do not get more money they are “whoring” for and the peso is 10 to the dollar. THEN I can stomach a “milanesa”.
Another absurd economic move by the (increasingly authoritarian) Kirchner government. As if already being the most costly country in the western hemisphere for electronic and technological goods wasn’t enough, now comes a totally unwarranted ban on imported food items. If, for example, Argentina produced chocolate, pasta, and hot pepper sauce of the same quality and taste as Switzerland, Italy, and Brazil, respectively, the forthcoming ban would not be such a loss for consumers who want and enjoy particular food items from around the world. I am a U.S. citizen residing in Argentina (nearing 6 years now), and the availability in this country of Italian pasta, numerous Chinese and North American condiments, German fruit preserves – in other words, the same imported products which were available to me in the U.S. – has been a plus for my living here. This may seem trivial, but an import ban like this, blatantly protectionist, will only help to further discourage foreign exchange with and investment in Argentina. I feel like packing up and heading back to the land of the loco yanquis; at least there I can buy and eat what I like!
another example of the shortsightedness the Kirchners exhibit in how they govern and solve problems. They can not get out of their own way when it comes to re-connecting to the world economy. do they really think that closing their borders will lead to growth and a vital economic future? i guess until the Argenbtines vote them out they will continue to fudge statistics, pay off unionists and think that they can govern as autocrats.
How can Scotch Whiskey be called “Scotch Whiskey” and be made anywhere but Scotland?
This is the equivalent to banning Ferrari to boost the sales of Ford or Chevrolet. That is not to say that domestic products are inferior but the majority of these “delicatessen” imports could be considered, or are in fact, luxury items due to price, availability, and quality. I know people who buy Frank’s cookies on occasion but most of the time they stick to buying cookies from Arcor because they like them too and they are cheaper. But you can’t compare Frank’s cookies to Arcor’s simply because they are classified as cookies. It is the same with most imports too. Sure a bottle of Carlsberg may be a peso less than Antares but what I see at the supermarkets are people buying one or two bottles of Carlsberg or Antares while grabbing a six liter pack of Quilmes. How many people are choosing a $20 peso bag of Kettle chips over a $5 Kratch every time they go shopping for chips?
They want to go after multi-nationals that produce in Brazil and sell to Argentina too it seems. What if Brazil says no more to Arcor? What if other countries or large companies decide to stop importing wine from Argentina in reciprocity? I’m sure companies such as Unilever have a lot of political and commercial pull around the world.
I don’t think we’ll see this go through all the way.
My first day back online in a few days and this is the news I read
I am going out now to hoard as much as I can in the way of chocolate and peanut butter..
My visitors will just have to get used to carrying heavier luggage.. adding groceries to my books and DVD requests.
I am still too much of a newbie here to make damning statements regarding Argentina, but it does look like someone is going about Things in a totally block headed way…
Actually my American neighbor brought up a good point….perhaps this is the Kirchner’s way of “punishing” China for not importing soy from Argentina. It will surely put Barrio Chino out of business which only hurts people here. China could care less and can get soy from Brazil or the U.S. I don’t think its a good idea for Argentina to piss off China. Who else is importing crap from Argentina?
rmartin,
Actually Argentina doesn´t really export crap. Most of the exports come in the way of commodities. They are a breadbasket to the world. They also export fruit like blueberries and they even export Peanut Butter to the States.
One thing is what you see on the shelves and another is what actually goes out to markets. What Argentina does not export a lot of is value added products like mine, but that is slowly (very slowly) starting to change.
There is a beautiful water bottle called gota for example, There is also Te de Jose and Intizen (another tea exporter); There is Otro Mundo that exports its micro brewed beer; and there are actually some others without going into a long list.
It´s hard to imagine that they want to get into a pissing match with China though. I don´t know of anyone who would want to do that.
The segment of the market affected by this is actually very, very small. It might be more to help mask just how messed up the local economy is. If, for example, export products start to be cheaper than locally made products then people would expect for them to devalue the currency. This is something they don´t want to do. Having cheap exported products on store shelves would be a more visible barometer to everyday people and maybe that´s the motivation behind this.
Again, this is just speculation on my part.
Thank you for another perspective. I think its just a matter of time before devaluation. That is my “fantasy” anyway.
typical lame argies, am glad they never got the Falklands, would’ve been just another source of money for corruption. Just keep smoking cigarettes and watching soccer.
Has anyone ever dared eat Argentine pasta? It’s gruel, simply put: not for humans.
The point here is people such as THE MINISTRO has no idea what real food is, they only know how to eat their tough greasy churrasco, mashed pumpkin, tasteless. Oh I forgot milanesas, yum, and the wonderful dulce de leche, that they use on just about everything.
But the real point here is what? Sure they export the best, and no doubt they are a source of food for other markets, problem is that what one finds at the local supermarkets is not of the same quality, and what’s sad is that most Argentines can’t even afford it. But go ahead Argentina, keep your insane sense of faded glory alive, I am sure keeping important products such as Tabasco off the shelves will be of great help to further the great future awaiting you. But one only needs to take a good look at the faces of the leaders and their cohorts, the answer is right there, thugs trying to distract the ignorant masses from their grim and miserable existence.
Sad, very sad.
Frank Almeida,
Argentina exports peanut paste to the U.S., not peanut butter, and this exported peanut paste must be further processed before being used in the production of commerical peanut butter in the U.S. However, Argentina does produce a very good (U.S.) “Skippy” style peanut butter, DAME MANI, which means I don’t need to “import” peanut butter.
What mystifies me about this proposed import ban is that I have never seen any imported food item priced at a similar or lower price than Argentine-made products. I intentionally plan my monthly food budget to cover the extra expenses incurred with the purchase of imported food items, of which most cost three to five times more than their Argentine equivalents.
Since the vast majority of Argentines do not purchase imported food items, I really don’t understand the reason for this ridiculous import ban – except, of course, that it most likely comes down to the usual corrupt big business practices that have drained this country.
The peanut butter I was thinking about was Dame Mani and they do export that product to the United States as well as the paste you mentioned.
The reason they are giving is that European products are going to become cheaper as the Euro goes down in value. But, like you said, in the store shelves you don´t see prices going down on these items. However, you should be starting to see prices going up of local products.
To sort of cliffnote my replies: Getting rid of export products that keep the same price on the shelves would help ease the impression of just how much local products are moving up, or at least minimize the dramatic rise in prices.
Notice that even now we are talking about the products that are missing and how expensive they were and we are not talking about how much prices are going up of local products. See, it´s working already
That’s an excellent point you bring up about raising prices Frank and now I’m wondering if their concern lays more with Brazil than the devaluation of the Euro. I don’t have a list handy but don’t a lot of mass market products such as pet food, personal care, candy, etc come from Brazil? There are a lot of products with Spanish/Portuguese labels. If your speculation is correct that’s where people would really see the price differences. This European stuff might be tossed in to distract everyone and make it look like they are protecting both big business and the little guy.
Anyone remember 2001-3? Different reasons, but no imported food on the shelves. That passed, this will too.
Frank,
Thanks for the Cliffnotes! Very informative and, ultimately, insightful. I now, so to say, get the picture. Again, many thanks.
Jim, no problem. I am enjoying this conversation and I am just “thinking out loud” here on Tao´s blog. I briefly mentioned this on my own blog, but I don´t get nearly the same type of responses there.
Marc, you are on to something. Yeah, Brazil is a huge trading partner with Argentina. We buy just about everything from them. However, they are like the Chinese in that we really should not piss them off. Argentina will loose with just about any neighboring country (except maybe Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia).
I don´t know the numbers on Brazil, but I get the impression that their market is humming along quite nicely though. I don´t think their products would be getting cheaper. Again, I see mostly that Inflation would be the biggest concern. I mean they went and pretty much destroyed the INDEC just so that they could hide real inflation numbers.
If they could just erase similar easy comparable tools that are in everyone´s reach then it could lessen the pain and they could still keep publishing low inflation numbers and keep a straight face doing so.
Anyway, that´s just my theory.
However, inflation is real and local products will most likely be going up but it´s not because of lack of competition. I can just picture people thinking that I am going to raise prices just because Pepperidge Farm and Jules Destrooper have been sent home packing!
If I raise prices it will be based on almonds going up 30%, butter going up 30%, transportation going up 20%, wages going up 20 to 30% (and I don´t know if they will make that retroactive yet), etc.
These are rates that are similar to last year´s by the way so don´t worry. It´s not the beginning to hyper inflation, but it is worrisome and not to mention a huge pain in the ass to have to negotiate price increases multiple times during the year.
I hate raising prices, but I also hate loosing money.
I just can’t figure out why they would say things like Italian pasta and Swiss Chocolate. If they foresee a problem with these products, why not slap on more tax or restrictions so that only certain businesses can sell them or have exclusive distribution rights? This is seriously starting to smell fishy the more I think about it. As if they want to have an excuse to ban something in the future from a huge trade partner without pissing them off. Sorry guys we’re having a problem and we’re trying to protect the little guy and, hey, other countries are getting punished too so it’s not just you.
These are some very interesting comments and observations you’ve been making here, Frank. Thanks very much for adding a lot of value to this discussion.
[...] from poor and disadvantaged social backgrounds, more than 400 players… Thursday, 06 May Argentina To Ban Some Foreign Foods, Beverages[The Argentine Post] Do you like Pringles? How about fiery Tabasco sauce or JIF peanut butter? What [...]
Comming over next week, taking orders at riduclously high prices. Get your orders in now.
Hey Taos,
How’s this stuff with Moreno squaring with Mercosur?
I mean… don’t we have a trade agreement with Brazil not to mention the rest?
Mike
Hey Mike,
This is a very good question, one that highlights just how dysfunctional Mercosur really is. Importers told me that one of the key products the government plans to ban is canned corn from Brazil. Argentina produces corn but not enough of it to satisfy domestic demand for canned products, importers said. This is precisely the kind of problem that Mercosur was created to avoid, so the fact that the two countries continue to bicker over relatively minor issues like this shows you just how immature the customs union is in reality. The Brazilians are not happy about this. Meanwhile, the Argentines aren’t happy that Brazil keeps getting more investment. It’s a larger market with a more predictable political and economic system, which helps explain why companies are more interesting in investing in Brazil than in Argentina.
But instead institutionalizing long-term policies that would create a more investment-friendly climate and help grow the local market, the government here implements these kind of policies. This policy is bound to lead to more trouble and, possibly, retaliatory measures.
Un abrazo,
Taos
Gavin and others who think Menem was so bad: I doubt that you lived here when he was President and I doubt that there are many on this board who were here BEFORE Menem. If Menem had not privatised services few, if any, of the expats on this board would be here. It took YEARS to get a telephone installed and if you had one the service was TERRIBLE. The other services were just as bad – frequent power cuts, for example. Yes, there was corruption but that’s the way of life here. There was no other way of making the transition to private services. Would you like to revert to incompetent state ownership? As for the disappearance of imported items, it will affect very, very few people here. Only a tiny group of Argentines live like American expats with dollar incomes. These silly economic policies come and go in this country. There is seldom ever any logic or long term planning, so you should just learn to live with it if you plan to stay here.
Paul – You are right, I wasn’t old enough to even remember the pre-Menem years. However, it is my knowledge of the Argentine boom and bust cycle that is saddening to me, and even your attitude of “get used to it, its Argentina” is disheartening. My point was that Menem had the right idea and executed poorly. This Kirchner mess could have completely been avoided if someone with a bigger vision was following through on the Washington Consensus. The only good news is that I know Argentina will some day swing back more conservative economic principles and my only hope is that it can do free-markets correctly this time. I think to really do it correctly they need to create a free-trade market internally in Latin America first (similar to the EU), but we all know how unlikely that is.
Gavin. Sorry my attitude is disheartening but it’s based on years of experience. Yes, Menem had the right idea, as you say. There was a lot of optimism during his first term. That optimism has completely evaporated. As you suggest, the problem with the privitisations is that there was no control (like the US and the banks). There was no way, however, that Menem could have made such radical reforms without corruption. He would not have had support. Nothing would have happened. What Menem did was revolutionary. I am convinced that the man truly had a vision of Argentina as a first world country. Unfortunately he made mistakes in his second term and world conditions conspired to undo the good. Used to failure, people here just gave up and reverted to their old ways. They keep voting in the same old demagogues and nothing changes.
Well, I think it was more entertaining to read this comment thread than the article itself, haha. I’ve learnt a lot from everyone’s opinion
They will ban Coca-Cola and Pepsi as well? Hard to believe
No, Coke and Pepsi are both produced here in Argentina, so there’s no risk there. This just applies to products that aren’t produced here but that do have an Argentine-made competing brand.
This is absurd. Prices of average Argentine products – like dry pasta – will shoot up and just add to the inflation at the moment.
Does anyone know if Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray are made in Argentina or they import it?
As a girl I work with so eloquently put it, Argentina is entering early stages of communism…. Is this the case?
I was reading about the ban on another spanish language site, one with a majority argentine audience, and the comments were quite interesting in relation to this post. Most of the comments went something like this: I like foreign products, but I put my tastes below my pride for our national industries. Something to think about I guess.
Being a foreigner myself i do love the occasional milano cookie, or perusing the foreign foods section of jumbo or carrefour, but then again, didn’t we all move to this country to leave our own?
“early stages of communism”? I’ll be polite and just say, “no”.
I think the big picture here is not about well-off Argentines and expats with dollars eating imported delicacies, it is about (typically) ham-fisted protectionism in violation of scads of international trade agreements — many with our closets neighbors. Argentina is already shut out of enough of the world’s commerce. Further isolation is moving in the wrong direction.
The food bans are nothing new. Argentina did this sort of thing in the past, long before the expats came on the scene. It’s deja vu. Allison, the attitude you saw on those Argentine websites is not surprising. Argentines are not really patriotic, though. It’s more more a sign of the deep seated isolationism and resentment coming out. When the peso was worth a dollar Argentines loved nothing better than to fly to Miami, have fun and go crazy buying clothes and anything else they could bring back. Nobody cared about national industries. People here would just LOVE to be able to live like the American middle class but they can’t so they get churlish and support populist measures like foreign food bans. It’s this sort of attitude that forever holds the country back. Early stages of Communism? Don’t worry. It won’t happen here.
I’m sorry. I seem to have missed the part where you mentioned where one can actually buy a good US peanut butter in Argentina. Where was that again?