I imagine that most shoppers are aware that the price of potatoes has gone through the roof recently. In our local Unimark, they currently retail for over $2.000 per kilo.
Out of curiosity I visited Waitrose, a UK supermarket site, and found this:
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£1.05/Kg works out around CLP $1.100
Chilean consumers are paying nearly double UK high street prices!
The underlying reason for the price hike is due to local scarcity; given the continuing state of anarchy in the South of Chile, farmers have less hectares under cultivation this year.
The media have suspiciously omitted to mention this, preferring to ventilate populist theories of price speculation by unscrupulous businesses, which fits in neatly with the government’s anti-capitalist party line, and their refusal to admit that the area has serious problems.
Anyway, they eat too much here, so maybe an enforced diet will encourage healthier living
I would think produce other than potatoes would/should reflect a sooner and higher price increase if the broad problem is less cultivation and anarchy in the south. We actually buy spuds pretty rarely as we treat them like a dessert guilty pleasure (carb starch), but I am definitely going to check next time we hit the fruteria. Will check the red fingerling and the lumbering big boys
I was recently in Costco in Arizona (love that place). Could get 6 green bell peppers for $2, vs. 1 bell pepper here in Provi for the same price. Cheaper prices in the west; but this is nothing new.
Someone else has noticed how expensive Chile has become as well…
"…cobran a precios mayor que Europa pero con sueldos del 3er mundo y los we@s van corriendo al mall por un celular y se endeudan mes a mes para comer y sobrevivir” y “En Chile todo es carísimo y acá estamos piola, calladitos como vacas lecheras”…
We like the papas nativas sold by Jumbo. They used to be much more expensive than the regular potatoes, but not so much any more. We’ve mainly been buying them lately.
