President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said this Wednesday (13) that food inflation will be a problem that will have to be faced “for a long time”, but he praised the fact that there is no food shortage in Brazil.
Bolsonaro spoke at an event at Palácio do Planalto, when a program was announced to encourage private investment in the recycling of products and packaging.
The Chief Executive stressed that Brazil will be important for the world’s food security, in particular because of the war between Russia and Ukraine. But, on the other hand, he stated that the conflict will have a great effect on food prices and that, therefore, the population must prepare to face this problem for a certain period of time.
“Today, approximately 40% of the wheat consumed in Brazil comes from abroad. We follow the problems from 10 thousand kilometers away. Ukraine is a large wheat exporting country and this will have a spike in inflation around the world. has shown, inflation in the food issue will have to be lived with for a long time”, said the President of the Republic.
Bolsonaro also justified the situation, arguing that, in addition to the new coronavirus pandemic and the war, Brazil had the worst drought in the last 91 years and that there was frost, damaging production.
Even so, he argues, Brazil “has emerged as one of the countries that suffered the least”. He also said that there is no shortage of food in Brazil.
The Chief Executive, at that moment, compared Brazilian inflation with that of the United States and said that recorded here is lower. The accumulated American inflation of the last 12 months, however, closed at 8.5% and that of Brazil was 11.3%.
“Brazil is a country that, in terms of its economy, has emerged as one of the countries that has suffered the least in the world. There is no news of food shortages here. Other countries, in addition to inflation much higher than what happened in Brazil, United States, for example, 8.5%, there is already a shortage of some products”, he said.
Despite Bolsonaro extolling that there is no shortage of food, the last few months have been marked by a drop in Brazilian purchasing power in the face of soaring inflation, which has resulted in increased hunger in Brazil.
A Datafolha survey released in December showed that 26% of Brazilians say that the amount of food at home was not enough to feed their families in recent months.
The percentage reaches 37% among those with a monthly income of up to two minimum wages.
The survey also showed that 15% of Brazilians have missed a meal in recent months because they do not have food at home.
Bolsonaro also played down the rise in fuel prices, saying the increases were smaller than in other countries around the world.
“And the question of energy as well: oil, gasoline. One of those that increased the least in price was Brazil. Did it increase a lot? And we recognize that it did, but it was one of the ones that increased the least,” he said.
Also present at the event, Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) said that Brazil was harshly criticized in the past for its environmental problems, but that now, because of the war in Ukraine, it is becoming a relevant actor to guarantee food and energy security. of the world.
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