Sonia Flores expressed her displeasure with the increase in onion prices in a supermarket in Guayaquil, where she found a kilogram for $4.45, and in the markets its value is also increasing: with one dollar you can get three pounds, but now only one. For two months now, this product has been among those that have the greatest impact on inflation.

And that is that Carlos González, the owner of a food stall in a market in the center of the city, explains that now he buys a bag of onions for 90 dollars, while before it was worth 18, 20 or even 25. Three pounds for 1 dollar, now we have to sell a pound for 1 dollar, for that reason people who used to carry 10 pounds are now carrying 2 or 3 pounds.”

‘A blow to the pocket, prices to the top’: rice and onions have become more expensive in the markets and in stores in Guayaquil

For those prices, buyers choose to buy pearl onions, which are cheaper, since González costs $45 a bag, and by selling at $0.50 a pound, he makes $5 from that bag, which he usually sells in two or three days.

However, the justification is that the high price of a bag of onions is a consequence of the insecurity in the country because the trucks that come with the cargo cannot pass because they are taken away by the grafters, “so they also risk coming here”. By hand, at the Montebello Food Transfer Market, a wholesale market in Guayaquil, they say that “there is no harvest in Peru.”

Uruguayan rice will arrive in Ecuador by sea. The industry expects to start selling them in stores and supermarkets in September

And the price of an egg has increased, before a bucket was sold for $3.80, now it is sold for $4.30.

In contrast to the rice that continues to produce while awaiting the arrival of 15,000 tons of pounded rice from Uruguay that have been imported and will arrive in the country by sea at the end of this month or in early September.

The purchase of grass on the international market was criticized by farmers, who stated that they have enough production to supply.

The industry anticipates that the arrival of rice from Uruguay will balance local market prices, which have already seen a slight downward adjustment

Before June, the prices of 5 kilograms of rice in supermarkets were between 5.50 and 7 dollars, then they rose to 9.60 dollars, and in July they started to fall to 8.45 and 8.82 dollars. This week prices are between $8.26 and $8.45. Two kilograms are sold at $3.28 and $3.38, while a few weeks ago they were trading at $3.60 and $3.66.

Both rice and paiteña onions and chicken eggs are some of the foods that weighed on inflation in July 2023, which stood at 0.54%, according to the monthly report published by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC). Rice and onions were also on the list of what went up the most in June.

Price list of various products in supermarkets from August 10, 2023:

Rice

Sugar

Oil

Meanwhile, the prices on the market are:

green

Rice

Sugar