Tacos and tortas rose up to 10 pesos in one year

Published July 9th, 2021

A Mexican earning a minimum wage has to work three hours to be able to buy a package of two tacos and a soft drink, according to data at the end of June presented by Inegi.

Between June of this year and the same month last year, packages of tacos and tortas became up to 10 pesos more expensive.

In June 2020, in Mexico City, an order of two suadero tacos and a soft drink cost 42 pesos, but twelve months later, the price for this package is 48 pesos.

The rise in products is the result of higher prices in meat, corn, tortillas, LP gas, vegetables, among other basic inputs for their preparation, commented Elena Santillán, financial analyst.

“Gas and electricity prices have gone up almost since the beginning of the year. These last few months have been complicated because we don’t have the same clientele and the ingredients to work with are increasingly more expensive,” commented Raúl Hernández, who has a taquería on Bolívar Street in the capital.

The price of the most consumed fuel in the country, LP gas, registered an increase of 34 percent in the last year, according to Profeco.

As a whole, the price of energy products, such as gasoline, electricity, and LP gas, grew 17.13 percent annually in June, according to Inegi’s latest inflation report.

“Inflation has accelerated and this deteriorates the purchasing power of families. It has a more worrying effect on people with lower incomes, especially in staple goods, such as food, which have had significant variations, mainly chicken or tortillas,” said Alejandro Saldaña, chief economist of Grupo Financiero Ve por Más.

In the case of chicken, according to Inegi data, a tortilla of this ingredient currently costs around 39 pesos, the equivalent of a 15 percent increase compared to June 2020.

If it is a milanesa torta and a 600-milliliter soft drink, the cost rises to 60 pesos, higher by 11 percent annually, or if it is a ham torta with a soft drink, the price is 49 pesos, four pesos more than in June last year.

“We had to raise our prices because it was no longer as profitable to sell at the same cost. In addition, the hike was to compensate for the commissions charged to us by home delivery apps, such as UberEats and DiDi Food,” said Federico Vázquez, owner of a tortería located in the south of the nation’s capital.

In June, annual headline inflation reached 5.88 percent, making it four consecutive months outside the Bank of Mexico’s (Banxico) target range.

According to Banxico’s Board of Governors, the rise in inflation could extend at least until August or September as a result of the economic reopening after the pandemic and is expected to fall to three percent in the third quarter of 2022.