The cost of living in Colombia has increased lately, and food prices have played a significant role in this inflation. The prices of meals eaten outside the home have increased by 18.64% in the last year, with fast food prices rising by 20.82%. Traditional dishes like hamburger, bandeja paisa, and corrientazo are now much more expensive. However, cooking such meals at home is no longer much cheaper, since the prices of inputs have risen, with variations of up to 25% per year. In cities like Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín, the cost of the three dishes mentioned above has risen considerably. For instance, the hamburger’s ingredients now cost 25% more in Medellín than they did a year ago. The same trend applies to the corrientazo, which has risen by 20% in cities like Cali. Meanwhile, bandeja paisa has seen a hike in its price by an average of 8% in Bogotá and 22% in Cali. Public services and food have pushed inflation to a new maximum of 13.34%, with food being the most impacted category. The cost of meat, bread, potatoes, and rice has significantly increased because of unfavorable weather conditions combined with input price shocks.
If there is a factor that reflects the increase in the cost of life for Colombians in recent months, it is food, and not only what you buy in the supermarket to cook, but eating outside the home is also 18.64% more expensive than a year ago. But if you’re thinking about the dog or the empanada from a fast food place, the price has gone up to 20.82%.
So, eating a hamburger, a bandeja paisa or a corrientazo is much more expensive now. One option is to prepare these dishes at home, but the inputs to make them have also become more expensive, even with variations of up to 25% per year.
Thus, LR set out to find out how much these three dishes have risen in price in cities like Bogotá, Cali and Medellín.finding that the dish that has become more expensive in the last year is the hamburger, with a variation of more than 20% in the prices of inputs as a whole in all the cities consulted.
For example, Medellín is the city where it became more expensive to make simple hamburgers (without fries), because according to data from Sipsa, In the last week of March of last year, buying its ingredients, such as meat, tomato, onion, and cheese, measured in kilos, cost an average of $10,400; and this year, in the same week, it cost about $21,200, that is, a variation of 25%. While in Bogotá, preparing this fast food rose 20.41% and in Cali 21.81%.
Figures that are in line with the inflation data presented by the Dane, where it shows thatthat meals in establishments had an annual increase of 18.64%, while meals prepared outside the home for immediate consumption, such as fast food, registered a variation of more than 20.8%.
For Santiago Hoyos, Bubu Burger manager, the main reason for the increase in this food is the price of meat and potatoes, in addition to the rents of the establishments.
“Year after year, costs have increased by 30%, and where it affects us the most is the price of meat and potatoes, but we cannot pass those prices on to customers because hamburgers are a highly elastic product., so we could only raise, on average, what the minimum wage increased, that means that we assume the difference between the cost of food and the price of the hamburger. Added, in addition, to the fact that maintaining a premises from rent and services is not cheap either ”.
On the other hand, and continuing with more traditional foods, andThere is the famous corrientazo, a typical dish of Colombian workers that has risen to 20% in some cities like Cali.
At the Sucursal del Cielo, the ingredients in kilos to make this lunch today cost about $50,000 on average, while for the same time in 2022 they cost about $47,000. What raised the price, according to Sipsa data, It was the meat, which went from costing $21,673 in the last week of March 2022, to $26,975 in March of this year.
In the capital of Antioquia, the corrientazo had a variation of 5% and in Bogotá 8%. What raised the dish the most in these two cities was the price of beans, since in both cities the kilo of this grain exceeds $12,000.
For Carlos Bedoya, a grain and legume vendor in Antioquia’s Plaza Mayorista, in recent months beans have been one of the foods that have risen the most in price due to winter.
“There were moments where a kilo of beans cost up to $15,000 and this is mainly due to the rains andalthough many times people stopped taking it because of its high price, because this is a food widely used in Antioquian meals and typical restaurants, they ended up buying it, but passing part of that price to diners,” he said.
For Javier Salcedo, Corabastos manager, food prices in the last month have remained high, but stable. “The above has occurred in beans, Creole potatoes, green peas, rush onion, lemon, plantain, kidney bean and carrot.. The price variation has been an average of 10%”.
Adding that “the high prices are due to the seasonality of the crops in the areas that supply Corabastos. In addition to the climate, since the strong winter and the strong summer in some areas of the country, caused a decrease in production“, said.
On the other hand, the bandeja paisa also became a privilege, since the price of both preparing it at home and eating it out went up.
This dish, which is characterized by its wide variety of ingredients, rose 22% in Cali, where a year ago the cost of the ingredients to prepare it, in kilos, were close to $47,000 and today they cost more than $58,000. Similar case in Bogotá, where the bandeja paisa rose 8% and in the capital of Antioquia, 4%.
But, if one evaluates how much this dish costs in a restaurant, the data is not encouraging either, since in Medellín, for example, the price of a bandeja paisa can be between $45,000 and up to $60,000.
Once again, what raised the price of this dish the most were the beans, which have been hitting highs for more than a year.
For Juan Camilo Pardo, Corficolombiana economic analyst, there are several factors that have converged to form a perfect storm that has been reflected in the price of these important dishes. Adding that the rise in the cost of living has not only been reflected in what could be called ‘weekend tastes’, such as fast food, but also in more common dishes and daily consumption such as the current.
“The increase in these dishes is due to the inflation that food has been facing in the country, so when one looks at the ingredients in these dishes, one realizes that meat, bread, potatoes, and rice, hThey have been facing a fairly significant increase, mainly due to the shock between the price of inputs that affects the costs of producers, with weather conditions that have not been favorable and this has formed a perfect storm for higher prices in the current. and else”.
Public services and food pushed inflation to a new maximum of 13.34%
Contrary to what the market expected, inflation continued to rise in March and reached a maximum of 13.34% annually. Meanwhile, the monthly variation was 1.05% and the year-to-date was 4.56%. By contribution, food and beverages continue to be the ones that most marked the increase in prices, with 4.05 percentage points from the 13.34 of last year. Another of the divisions that boosted prices is public services, especially accommodation, water, electricity and gas, which grew 7.68% and contributed 2.43 percentage points to the total result.
Rising food prices have recently become an increasing concern for Colombians. According to recent data, meals outside the home have increased in price by up to 18.64%, while fast food such as hot dogs or empanadas have risen by 20.82%. Traditional dishes such as the hamburger, corrientazo, and bandeja paisa have also risen in price due to the cost of ingredients such as meat, potatoes, and rice. These increases are mainly a result of unfavorable weather conditions and the shock between the price of inputs, which affects the costs of producers. As inflation continues to rise, Colombians will be facing a further increased cost of living in the coming months.