‘Don’t complain later’: Bukele’s controversial strategy to reduce the high cost of food in El Salvador

In 2019, the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele He warned the gangs to “stop killing or not complain later”. . But now, a few months ago, delivered the same message, no longer to the members of the gang, but to the traders and distributors of food .

“Stop insulting the Salvadoran people or don’t complain later” he declared on July 5.

And that’s it The cost of food in El Salvador has broken records due to overcharging. It is for this reason that the president, on national television, warned traders who take advantage of the absence of sanctions that “we are not playing”.

“In case anyone says it’s just him salvèque, show, just a smokescreen, well you’ll see if it’s just a smokescreen. That’s what the gang members also said. “I expect low prices tomorrow, otherwise they will be in trouble.”

Last July, the interannual inflation rate in El Salvador reached 1.78%, the highest since December 2023 according to the Central Reserve Bank (CRB) .

This is what Bukele is doing to reduce the cost of food in his country and why some view the plan with suspicion.

He Salvadoran Minister of Agriculture, Óscar Domínguez announced the creation of “agromarkets”, points of sale in strategic areas of El Salvador where food is sold at “fair prices”.

Among the 50 already installed across the country, Fresh produce such as fruits, vegetables and grains like rice and beans are offered, but at a much lower price than the traditional market. They are open Monday to Sunday, from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The idea, explained by the government, is that agromarkets promote “interaction between suppliers and consumers, without intermediaries”.

A journalist from BBC World attended the inauguration of one of them, in Quezaltepeque, and assured that The experience of shopping at this farmers’ market “is very different from shopping at a traditional market.”

Salvadorans arriving at the facility They must line up outside the room and enter one by one with a guide. They pass through different fruit and vegetable areas, and They have to choose what they want to wear. And they pay at the end, “self-service style”.

According to Gabriela Jeorge, coordinator of the agromarket team, the place sells “some national products, but above all, the product comes from La Tiendona.

La Tiendona, explained the BBCis the country’s main wholesale fruit and vegetable sales center. Usually, the products processed there come from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Another difference between buying from a Bukele farmers market and buying from a traditional market is that the buyer chooses the product and uses less bagging, Municipal employee César Erazo mentioned to the same media, which helps people store their products.

At another agricultural market, located in Apopa, one of El Salvador’s most populated cities, Michelle Ruiz, a 21-year-old girl, told El Salvador journalists: BBC that The price difference is very noticeable.

“Potatoes, for example, where I buy them, they don’t even give me half of what I have today for 1 dollar.”

So, Bukele’s strategy for reducing the cost of food is summarized as follows: She buys products from La Tiendona – the wholesaler from which other traders also buy – and resells them at a lower cost, since she “skips” the step of having a middleman.

In other words, the government sells directly to residents.

However, since BBC World they question it “It is difficult to see how it is possible to offer these preferential prices, when the majority of products come from La Tiendona, the same sales center in which almost everything is imported and supplies conventional markets and street vendors.”

Some sources contacted by the media said that It is possible that Bukele has the ability to negotiate “a more favorable price” by purchasing in massive quantities for all agromarkets.

Or that, too, By using public resources and having civil servants work in the markets, costs also fall.

However, Some believe that the Bukele government is subsidizing agricultural markets, a strategy that is unsustainable in the long term.

And, in addition to announcing the agricultural markets, Bukele also announced that he would suspend import taxes on all products that make up the Salvadoran basic basket for 10 years, promote competition in the market and thus further reduce prices.

However, for the economist Julia Evelin Martínez , In both cases, these are temporary measures, “more for propaganda purposes than with real effects on food prices”.

“Its elimination assuming that with this there will be more competition in the market and that, under the effect of supply and demand, prices will decrease and therefore the purchasing power of families will increase is an error .”

Instead, “This causes the destruction of domestic production and the economy depends on imports and, as a result, food becomes more expensive.”

This would be an adverse effect that could complicate Bukele and El Salvador, and according to a recent report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) , 52% of the Salvadoran population remains in a “situation of food stress”.

This means that approximately 3.3 million people have difficulty meeting their basic food needs.

And, alongside this situation, official data reveals that El Salvador imports 90% of its legumes, fruits and vegetables to cover local demand for other basic products (milk, beans and rice) which it buys from neighboring countries.

For Luis Treminio, president of the Salvadoran Chamber of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers (Campo), this is worrying, because “El Salvador is becoming a purely importer country, which is beneficial neither for the national economy nor for the economy of the population. »