Newcomer What happened to the price of tomatoes? $5000 per kilogram, that's crazy!

[amanda8]

Yesterday, I went to the grocery store to buy my usual basics, including tomatoes and bell peppers. I was really surprised to see that tomatoes were $5000 per kilogram and bell peppers were $8000 per kilogram. It seemed outrageous, so I didn't buy them. Later, I saw it on the news... I don't plan to buy any until the price comes down.

“Está por las nubes”: se disparó el precio del tomate, en un mes subió el 200% y se está importando de Chile y Brasil

En las verdulerías el producto se vende a entre 5000 y 7000 pesos el kilo; las bajas temperaturas, entre las causas de un atraso en el ingreso de la producción al mercado

www.lanacion.com.ar

 

[Digital Nomad]

Does anyone know the actual cost of these for the stores? I was wondering how much mark up they have? Many things don't make sense here. Sometimes even when things are going bad and no one is buying you would think they would mark down the price but it seems like some sort of collusion with all the vendors.

 

[Fred58]

Yes! I totally agree with you. They tried to charge me $7000 per kilogram for tomatoes, so of course, I didn't buy them. The logic would indicate that if most people aren't buying, as is happening now, the price should drop, so there must be something else behind it. I found it interesting that a guy compared the price and saw that it was much cheaper to buy a tomato salad than to buy the tomatoes themselves. There’s a huge difference between the price per kilogram of tomatoes and the price per kilogram of tomato salad.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1795973682914808310

 

[Larry]

It is outrageous prices of food here. On par with first world countries. Outrageous.

 

[Digital Nomad]

This morning I saw those same prices at the Coto in my neighborhood, and the tomatoes were awful, pale and bruised. So I asked the guy who weighs produce if this is normal this time of year. He said that no, not at all. He didn't understand what's going on. I did find Roma tomatoes (red, no blemishes) for 5,000/kilo so I bought about 300 gr, we'll see if they taste good.

Then I went to the autoservicio a couple of blocks from the supermarket and they were selling the same awful round tomatoes for 5,000 pesos and the red peppers (good looking ones) for 4,500 pesos.

Nothing makes sense. The tomatoes have been bad and expensive even during the summer.

I've experience the same thing Sunny. I asked around and people tell me it's not usually like this. Hopefully those Roma tomatoes are good. The thing I miss most about back home in the States is the really fresh and great produce that you can get at any Whole Foods. There isn't cheap either but at least it's very good and fresh.

 

[Digital Nomad]

Things like this make NO sense to me. I long suspected that vendors would rather have their fruit and vegetables rot before they will discount it. It was more of a hunch but I saw this on X today. Why do they do this? Makes NO sense to me with so many people starving here. Even if they marked the price down they could sell it but instead they want to keep prices high.

Why let it rot vs. discounting it?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1806732505719975937

 

[Spend Thrift]

Disposing hundreds of tons of fruit makes no sense to me either. I've seen the same thing where they won't mark down prices to sell it. I have traveled all over the world and never witnessed anything like what I see here. If people don't sell something here they never mark the price down. It seems like they would rather wait and try to price it even higher. I love many things about this country but probably hate even more things.