JAÍR PEPPER / THE PYLON
The Vallenato community is alarmed by the exaggerated increase that coastal cheese has had in recent months: it went from costing 12,000 pesos to 30,000 kg, in less than a year.
Regarding this, the director of Fenalco Cesar, Octavio Pico Malaver, stated that taking into account that a liter of milk, which is the raw material for cheese, is currently available at 1,700 pesos a liter and that to manufacture a kilo of this product 7 liters are needed on average, taking accounts, the initial value would be approximately 11,700 pesos.
In this way, its commercial price should oscillate between 16,000 and 18,000 pesos, taking into account the value chain, which goes from whoever produces it through whoever distributes it to whoever finally consumes it, so it is most likely that someone is breaking this process, therefore the derisory increase in the price that cheese has had would be due to the speculative phenomenon.
“If we put a ‘limit’ on that as consumers, surely the supply and demand is capable of regulating, but there is also a phenomenon that is difficult to understand, the phenomenon of exports, more expensive cattle, more expensive milk, that is why it went from 1,300 pesos per liter to 1,700, it’s a whole chain and we need to pay attention to it because you can’t earn it all in one day,” said Pico Malaver.
This information contrasts with that provided to this outlet by Alfonso Thomas, a coastal cheese distributor, located in a commercial establishment that operates within the Valledupar market square, who assured that the increase in the liter of milk is what triggered the value of the dairy product; according to him, it is obtained at 2,700 pesos per liter, that is, a thousand pesos above the price provided by the director of Fenalco.
“Previously you could get $1,500 per liter of milk, cheese could be sold for $15,000 pesos per kilogram, but now it’s at $2,500 and almost double that, that’s why soft cheese is sold for $25,000 and hard cheese for $30,000 pesos and for preparing a kilo of cheese requires more than 9 liters of milk”, said the merchant.
AFFECTATION TO DERIVATIVE PRODUCTS
Additionally, the increase in the price of cheese also affects the value of other items for which this product must be included in its preparation, such as arepas, breads, baked goods, among others. Hence the alarm that has been generated in the community in the face of food shortages.
Andrés Felipe Reina, owner of a micro-enterprise that manufactures products made with cheese, revealed that in the last year they have been forced to raise the value of their items on several occasions according to the growth dynamics that dairy has been reporting at an accelerated rate.
A similar case occurs with Blanca Sánchez, owner of a fast food stand, located in the La Esperanza neighborhood. She, like Andrés, has also been affected by the rise in the price of cheese. “Last year an arepa that used to sell for 1,500 pesos had to be raised by 500 pesos, that is, to $2,000 and now we must raise the price to earn something,” she said.
COMMUNITY ALARMED
In the neighborhoods of Valledupar, the community agrees that there must be speculation about the ‘disproportionate’ increase that cheese has suffered lately, as Lucy Moreno stated: “They say that milk has gone up and that is why cheese is expensive, but I keep buying milk at the same price and also buttermilk and yogurt, so the only thing that goes up and up is cheese, that’s why I ask you to please put control on the price”.
Fredy Amador is another citizen who assured that he has had to look for options to accompany his meals because eating cheese is no longer an option for him and his family, made up of five people, because now it is even cheaper to buy meat, because ensures that this is achieved at 26 thousand pesos per kilo.
“You can’t eat cheese, when you were short of money you used cheese several times a day, yucca with cheese in the morning, noodle rice with cheese at noon, and arepa with cheese in the afternoon and that’s how you ‘bandeada’ , but now when you have money you buy cheese, it seems like a lie but it’s not,” said Amador.