The Agriculture Secretariat will launch a 10% discount for people who pay with debit cards in butcher shops as beef prices surge.

The new measure will be launched in the following days, and businesses that adhere will receive a special card reader, according to sources in the Secretariat. The discounts will have a AR$1,000 (US$5.29 at the official rate and US$2.80 at the MEP rate) limit per purchase and will not be subject to any monthly restrictions, the sources told the Herald.

Butchers who enter the discount regime will receive a 90% tax cut.

The Agriculture Secretariat believes families will save a significant amount of money through the initiative. “And beef prices shouldn’t rise that much,” they added.

The recent drought has held beef prices steady over the last two months, and they have even fallen in some cases. The lack of fodder for cattle meant that some producers undersold it, increasing beef supply and slowing price increases. Despite a 94.8% general inflation rate for 2022, beef rose by just 42%, according to the INDEC. According to business consulting firm Ecolatina, in January, beef rose by only 3% in the Greater Buenos Aires area.

However, the prices are bound to bounce back.

Ecolatina’s research lead Santiago Manoukian told the Herald that, as the price of live cattle skyrocketed by 30% during the second half of the month, more markups are to come. “We expect prices to rise more clearly in February,” said Manoukian. Moreover, according to Rosario Stock Exchange, at AR$460 per kilo, the price of the live cattle is still cheap, and they calculate that, in order to “correct the delay,” the kilo should cost AR$550.

In some parts of the country, the rise of live cattle has already hit beef prices. According to Vanesa Ruiz, vice president of the Grocers’ Center in Córdoba, their statistics institute detected a 16% beef price rise in small butcher shops and grocery stores during the last month. “In the first [five] days of February, we noticed a 15% price markup, and more increases are expected in March.”

Ruiz says that they are still expecting to hear from the government about the new program, but says that small neighborhood butcher shops and grocery stores were not invited to participate in the administration’s latest price agreements.

Meanwhile, the government is planning more measures to counteract the price hike. Last week, Economy Minister Sergio Massa announced that 4,200 beef producers who undersold their cattle due to a lack of fodder caused by the drought would receive an income tax exemption. 

Sources inside the Agriculture Ministry told the Herald that they are drafting another measure for the government to pay for half of the cattle’s food.

Beef is a major part of the country’s culture but, at 47.5 kilos per inhabitant per year, consumption is at its lowest historical levels – although the decline reflects not just the price, but Argentines’ growing interest in other proteins. In 1980, for example, the figure was 86.4kg per capita. The government’s new measures aim to prevent beef from being even more prohibitively expensive.