The bean, Brazil's star food, is starting to be inaccessible to many – 04/03/2019

Beans, the favorite food of Brazilians, quadrupled its price in recent months and has become inaccessible to many consumers, who are now looking for alternatives to replace the star dish of Brazil.

Every Brazilian consumes on average 15 kilos of beans per year, making it, with rice, the most popular product of the diet from the South American country.

The "feijão", as we call the beans in Brazil, is also the main ingredient of the "feijoada", a stew with several pork and beef meats that is considered the most typical dish of the country's cuisine.

Tradition says that the "feijoada" was a dish created by slaves, who cooked the beans with less noble meats than their gentlemen despised, but today, centuries later, is part of the weekly menu of millions of Brazilians, whatever their social clbad.

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At Bar Montecarlo, located a few meters from the emblematic Paulista Avenue, one of the financial centers of São Paulo, it is served every Wednesday and Saturday More than a hundred feijoadas a day.

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But the famous stew, one of the main sources of income for this bar, is beginning to weigh on its owners because of the rise in the price of grain, which has grown more than 200% in recent months.

"At the moment, we are keeping the price of feijoada. C & # 39; our main courseSo we keep the price in order not to affect the customer, "says bar owner Ronilce Matos.

Like Matos, retired Alice Boreli also considers "the dizzying increase" in the price of the bean as "absurd" and He found a substitute for his favorite food: lentils.

And that is the price of the food symbol of Brazilian gastronomy it went from 3.5 Reais (0.94 cents) per kilogram last November to 12 Reais ($ 3.24) in February, according to data from the Brazilian Feijão Institute.

"Everything in the supermarket is expensive (…) Beans, rice, sugar, everything increases," says Boreli.

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The rise in the price of beans in Brazil coincides with the reduction of the harvestmainly the carioca type, the most consumed in the country, where there are also other varieties such as the "fradinhoi", "feijao de corda" or "preto" (black).

According to the president of the Brazilian Institute of Feijao (Ibrafe), Marcelo Lüders, the producers decided last year to reduce the planting of this legume to grow more economically profitable products, such as soybeans.

The outbreak of the bean price also contributed drought recorded at the end of last year in some of the country's producing regions, resulting in a larger reduction in supply.

"Scarcity usually causes a sudden rise in prices, but it does not last long because we have three bean crops", said the coordinator of the consumer price index (CPI) of the Getulio Vargas Foundation study center, André Braz, who expects a price cut from # 39; in April.

The value of the "carioca" bean, which represents 60% of the national product, reaches in early February the 400 reais (about 108 dollars) per bag of 60 kilos on the ground, against 120 Reais (32,4 dollars) per bag of the previous year.

Beans and other foods acceleration of inflation in January to 0.32%, after the 0.15% rise recorded in December. However, the indicator has risen by 3.78% in the last 12 months, below the target of 4.25% set by the Brazilian government.

"The bean has increased inflation in January, but will have a bigger impact in February. However, inflation in Brazil is very low because the economy is still slow, unemployment is very high and consumption is low, "said Braz.

For the expert, the increase in the price of beans has mainly harmed the poorestbecause the legume is the "main dietary supplement" of the low-income population in Brazil.

"The poor guy only eats rice and beans and he's above that price," regrets a lady at the doors of a supermarket in San Pablo.

AGENCY EFE.

GML