In the midst of macroeconomic instability, which includes, among other things, a shortage of foreign exchange to import essential inputs for production, the lack of figurines and albums from the 2022 World Cup has become a matter of stateto such an extent that yesterday the Secretary of Commerce, Matías Tombolini, along with four officials from his portfolio, received representatives from the Union of Kiosqueros of the Argentine Republic (UKRA) and the Panini company (which produces and distributes the collection) to find a solution to that problem.
The dissemination of this meeting held yesterday afternoon generated a great stir on social networks, where Many users stated that the country already has innumerable problems to be dealing with the lack of the well-known figurines.
It happens that when barely a month has passed since the Qatar 2022 World Cup Album and its corresponding figurines went on sale, it is an impossible mission to find the latter, and numerous people (young people and also parents with their minor children) go through kiosks in the search, without success.
In this situation, the merchants complained about the shortages and accused the company of being the main responsible for this happening.
In the Secretary of Commerce they commented that “the parties were urged to find a solution that makes the marketing chain transparent, while from the UKRA they announced that they will present a proposal to the company, which will be analyzed”.
In this sense, the official sources added that Tombolini made its legal and technical teams available to collaborate on this issue.
as far as he could tell THE NATION, the guild of newsagents would have a particular interest in the distributionfor which it would have the endorsement of the Ministry of Commerce.
Adrián Palacios, first vice president of UKRA, announced that they will present a proposal to the company, so that it can analyze it. And in an interview with the TN news channel he said: “They promised to deliver the same amount to the newsstands as to the supermarkets. They were going to do a week each, but the production is not enough to cover the two sectors”.
Palacios added that all dialogue is positive, that they want to find solutions to improve supply, that kiosks throughout the country have the product and also that prices be regularized through official channels.
consulted by THE NATIONin Panini they answered that demand exceeded all expectations and that a new machine was installed to increase the production of figurines. “We want to convey peace of mind that all albums can be completed before the World Cup. There are no inconveniences beyond the delay”, they expressed in the multinational firm.
To give a dimension of the current demand for figurines, Panini indicated: “Compared to the World Cup in Russia, which was a sales record for our company, 40% more albums and 19% more figurines were sold at this point”
The meeting, which lasted longer than expected and ended around 8:00 pm yesterday, was also attended by the Undersecretary for Policies for the Internal Market, Anastasia Daicich; the Undersecretary of Actions for the Defense of Consumers, Lucila Bueti; the head of the National Commission for the Defense of Competition, Rodrigo Luchinsky; the head of the Secretary’s Cabinet of Advisors, Rodrigo Herrera Bravo; the vice president of Panini, Nicolás Sallustro; the firm’s Communications Manager, Héctor Crespo Figueras; the president of UKRA, Norberto Tomasino; the second vice president, Ernesto Acuña, and the head of the Business Confederation of the Argentine Republic (Cgera), Marcelo Fernández.