President Claudia Sheinbaum and Mexico’s business sector renewed the Package Against Inflation and Expenditure (PACIC), aimed at lowering food prices for another six months on Tuesday.
“We want prices to come down for consumers, especially for those who don’t have much,” Sheinbaum said during her daily morning press conference.
Sheinbaum was referring to Mexico’s basic food basket, or the canasta básica, a total of 24 basic foods considered basic to every household. Among these 24 foods are rice, sugar, egg, tuna, meat, carrots, tomatoes, tortillas and limes.
The group of businesses participating in the agreement — which includes representatives from 19 food production companies and 11 marketing firms, including Walmart, Kimberly Clark and Bimbo — will discuss adding additional products, according to media reports.
The agreement limits the cost of the canasta básica to a total cost of 910 pesos (US $44.23), marking a considerable 12.4% price reduction from the previous year.
After the meeting, the newspaper El Universal reported that Francisco Cervantes Díaz, president of Mexico’s Business Coordinating Council, had said that all the participating companies agreed to continue the anti-inflation package for the next six months and that the scheme had been a “good idea” and had worked very well to date.
PACIC I was established under the previous administration in 2022 when inflation in Mexico was the highest it had been in two decades.
Mexico’s Agriculture Minister announced on Oct. 22, that his ministry had a plan to reduce the consumer price of corn tortillas by 10%. Between 2018 and 2024, the price of a kilo of corn tortillas rose by 65% from 14 pesos ($0.68) to over 23 pesos ($1.12).
With reports from El Universal, El Pais and Reuters
