Local products are getting killed by imports - Tomatoes one example

[MikeYoung]

I am not sure how local products will make it when imported products are so much cheaper.

La industria tomatera en alerta | Empresarios piden medidas de control sobre las importaciones

Las cámaras patronales advierten que la producción nacional está en peligro a causa de la suba del costo de los insumos y la avalancha de importaciones.

www-pagina12-com-ar.translate.goog

 

[Spend Thrift]

Local producers and companies will get killed with the overinflated peso. These local companies have been protected and didn't really have to compete with all the crazy import taxes and tariffs. I heard they also had quotas and prohibited some products from entering.

Milei wanted to try to force prices down by forcing locals to compete with imported products and getting rid of import taxes. I don't think the local companies can compete. They are spoiled and lazy and not used to competing. Peso is also too strong.

Can't have your cake and eat it too. Either have to devalue the currency while opening up the competition with imports or currency appreciation with protections in place for local companies. Doubt you can have both.

Looking at some of the prices of Amazon or ML at imported products local companies can't compete.

 

[oil rush]

Local producers and companies will get killed with the overinflated peso. These local companies have been protected and didn't really have to compete with all the crazy import taxes and tariffs. I heard they also had quotas and prohibited some products from entering.

Milei wanted to try to force prices down by forcing locals to compete with imported products and getting rid of import taxes. I don't think the local companies can compete. They are spoiled and lazy and not used to competing. Peso is also too strong.

Can't have your cake and eat it too. Either have to devalue the currency while opening up the competition with imports or currency appreciation with protections in place for local companies. Doubt you can have both.

Looking at some of the prices of Amazon or ML at imported products local companies can't compete.

Local companies won't be able to compete. They will get buried by cheap imports. But maybe Milei will figure out that you can't have it both ways. Local industries are going to all get killed if so.

 

[Bingo]

Why why are tomatoes so expensive in the stores? Presumably it takes the about the same amount to grow a tomato in Brazil or Colombia. Why are they so much more expensive here?

 

[Jenn]

Why why are tomatoes so expensive in the stores? Presumably it takes the about the same amount to grow a tomato in Brazil or Colombia. Why are they so much more expensive here?

I haven't even been to Argentina before but doesn't take a trip to Argentina to know that growing tomatoes in a country with tons of fertile land shouldn't cost much at all or be priced high. Seems like everything is overpriced there.

 

[Ron]

It's definitely a complex issue. On one hand, cheaper imports can help control prices for consumers, but on the other, they are hurting local producers who can't compete. The case of tomatoes is a clear example, and in the long run, it could be negative if local production collapses. Finding a balance is key.

 

[lemonade]

Good that prices are coming down on stuff but I can't see how any of these companies here making stuff will stay in business competing against China.

Hit by Chinese imports, slumping demand, Argentina’s textile industry is reeling - Buenos Aires Herald

Consumers say local products are too pricey, while manufacturers claim that taxes, banking fees are sinking their ability to compete

buenosairesherald.com

 

[Blockchain]

Good that prices are coming down on stuff but I can't see how any of these companies here making stuff will stay in business competing against China.

Hit by Chinese imports, slumping demand, Argentina’s textile industry is reeling - Buenos Aires Herald

Consumers say local products are too pricey, while manufacturers claim that taxes, banking fees are sinking their ability to compete

buenosairesherald.com

They did it to themselves not pricing fairly and thinking the government would protect them forever with nutso import taxes. From what I can see every time I have visited they don't price realistically and only have themselves to blame. Compete or die.

 

[VINO]

Good that prices are coming down on stuff but I can't see how any of these companies here making stuff will stay in business competing against China.

Hit by Chinese imports, slumping demand, Argentina’s textile industry is reeling - Buenos Aires Herald

Consumers say local products are too pricey, while manufacturers claim that taxes, banking fees are sinking their ability to compete

buenosairesherald.com

They can't compete against China. Prices were outrageous on just about everything. Clothes made in Argentina were super expensive and low quality. Towels and bedding were very low quality and 3X more than in an American store. It is good to get affordability and better quality here finally after decades.

It is a negative that manufacturing companies will go out of business but hopefully they can repurpose those jobs into something else. They will have to do that. The inability of locals to get competitive on quality and pricing was always their downfall.

 

[lemonade]

They can't compete against China. Prices were outrageous on just about everything. Clothes made in Argentina were super expensive and low quality. Towels and bedding were very low quality and 3X more than in an American store. It is good to get affordability and better quality here finally after decades.

It is a negative that manufacturing companies will go out of business but hopefully they can repurpose those jobs into something else. They will have to do that. The inability of locals to get competitive on quality and pricing was always their downfall.

Agree they can't compete with China. I am amazed that companies could charge as much as they could for so long especially when the economy is terrible. Finally seems like these companies now will go out of business. Consumers seem tapped out here.

 

[Problema]

Good that prices are coming down on stuff but I can't see how any of these companies here making stuff will stay in business competing against China.

Hit by Chinese imports, slumping demand, Argentina’s textile industry is reeling - Buenos Aires Herald

Consumers say local products are too pricey, while manufacturers claim that taxes, banking fees are sinking their ability to compete

buenosairesherald.com

Argentina should think this through very carefully. Amazon devastated shopping malls and has pushed department stores and bookstores to the brink of extinction. Commercial property vacancies have never fully recovered. Now, it’s slowly taking over nearly every commerce channel—domestic freight, car sales, pharmaceuticals, even healthcare.

Critics rightly point out that Amazon replaced good, middle-class jobs with warehouse work driven by punishing productivity metrics. Yet, at least in the U.S., you can argue that the logistics, jobs, technology, and infrastructure remain within the country.

For Argentina to throw open the doors to a Chinese version of Amazon without understanding the impact on its own labor market isn’t just shortsighted—it’s dangerous. Chinese factories are propped up by state-backed financing and opaque “shadow banking” subsidies. Their dumping practices—flooding markets with underpriced goods to capture foreign trade—pose a very real threat.

Argentine businesses should strive to be more competitive, yes, but it’s naive to think local manufacturing can match China’s artificially low production costs on equal terms. Before pretending that clothes made in Argentina can be as cheap as those made in China, the government would do far better to study how China supports its own manufacturing sector—and replicate that model.