Bean price rises more than 30% in São Paulo

It's not just the meat that's expensive for consumers, another everyday food is going up a lot: beans. In São Paulo, the kilo of the product increased 31.6% in 12 months, more than 10 times official inflation for the period (2.54%). In the last week, prices rose 3.17%, and the kilo of beans, which cost around R$ 4.00, is worth between R$ 5.49 and R$ 7.99, according to the Consumer Price Index of the Foundation Institute of Economic Research (IPC-Fipe), which takes into account the cost of living in the cap ital paulista, the most populous city in the country. In the first months of the year the price of beans skyrocketed and hit a 59% increase, then retreated, but recently rose again. According to experts, in addition to the off-season, the high is explained by climatic complications and reduction of planted areas. Many producers exchanged the bean area for the cultivation of corn and soybeans – export products. "By the beginning of next year (there will be pressure on prices). But the natural trend of these indices is to return these increases over time. Most of these items that suffer these variations usually return these prices up front," explains Fipe economist Guilherme Moreira. And the raise took restaurants and supermarkets by surprise. "There is always signage (about bean supply): from the producer, the companies they provide, but this time there was nothing. There was an impactful increase overnight," says supermarket manager Anderson de Lima.