Tangerine is the product with the highest inflation in Brazil – 07/16/2023 – Market

It has different names, it is easy to peel, it has a strong smell and, unfortunately for the consumer, it has become more expensive. This is the tangerine.

In the accumulated 12 months through June, fruit prices accumulated a high of 52.5%, according to data from the IPCA (National Index of Prices to the Extended Consumer).

This is the sub-item with the highest inflation among the 377 goods and services that make up the official inflation index in Brazil, calculated by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).

The organ calls the product tangerine, which also receives the names of tangerine in places like São Paulo and bergamot in Rio Grande do Sul.

The 52.5% increase is the most intense for the fruit since May 2019 in the IPCA. At the time, it had accumulated inflation of 59.36% in 12 months.

Different factors contribute to the tangerine being the villain of the time, but this behavior is not unheard of. Due to seasonality, it has already recorded inflation peaks in other years. Now, the high cost reflects, above all, supply restrictions with an adverse situation in the transition from 2022 to 2023.

Antonio Carlos Simonetti, counselor at Associtrus (Brazilian Association of Citrus Growers), says that excessive rain in producing regions in the South and Southeast “washed” the fertilizer from plantations. There were also losses due to a fungus that benefits from humidity and the greening disease, common in citrus.

“The price increase is a consequence of all these issues.”

The largest volume of tangerine harvest usually occurs from May to August, but this year, the period should be extended, according to him. There were reports of production problems in the interior of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul.

The murcote variety is available from more or less July to December, and the ponkan variety from April to August. “It’s not like the mango or other fruit that we find on the market at any time of the year. In some months, it becomes rarer”, says economist André Braz, from FGV Ibre (Brazilian Institute of Economics of the Getulio Vargas Foundation).

“Add to that the cost, which has risen a lot in the last 12 months. Agricultural inputs derived from oil have become more expensive, such as pesticides, pesticides, and all of this has put pressure on the cost of production”, he adds. The scenario, however, has already changed with the recent drops in diesel and oil prices, and the fruit should not register the same type of high in the next 12 months.

“There was also an atypical weather situation, with hail at the end of last year that compromised part of the orchards and impacted this year’s supply, raising prices”, says Braz.

Although the IPCA calculation covers 16 capitals and metropolitan regions in the country, not all items are monitored in these regions. The collection of tangerine prices only takes place in São Paulo and Curitiba (PR). In the capital of Paraná, inflation reached 72.34% in 12 months.

Even at this level, tangerine is not as expensive as a nectarine or a box of seedless grapes, for example. A kilo of the ponkan variety, the most consumed, can cost R$5.90 in a supermarket in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro, or vary from, more or less, R$1.90 to R$3 in Ceasas, depending on the size.

A kilo of the murcote variety, a cross between tangerine and sweet orange, is in the range of R$ 2.15 to R$ 3.30 at supply centers. There is also, among the most popular, the clove, available practically only in the first semester.

After fruit, the sub-items with the highest increases in the accumulated 12 months through June of the IPCA are yams (46.95%), baby fish (40.79%), cassava flour (34.93%), banana- apple (32.62%), sweet potato (29.6%), watermelon (24.9%), baby food (23.27%), chicken egg (22.93%) and papaya (22.66%). %).

On the other hand, soy oil had the most intense drop among the 377 IPCA sub-items. The accumulated low was 35.37%. The product skyrocketed during the pandemic, but has been falling amid the truce in soybean prices on the international market and the projection of a record grain harvest in Brazil.

Diesel oil (-27.42%), gasoline (-26.8%), ethanol (-23.21%) and vehicular gas (-19.96%) follow the ranking of the biggest falls in the IPCA. The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government had cut taxes on fuel to contain inflation on the eve of the elections in the second half of 2022.