Argentina: “Wholesale Markets Must Offer Comfort and Technology to Sellers and Buyers Alike,” Says Jujuy Operator

By Viktor Kovalev, POTATOES NEWS

Potatoes remain the top-selling product in Argentina's wholesale markets, but the varieties on sale, the packaging and the way prices are formed have all changed over the past decade, says Efraín Ortega, operator at the Perico wholesale market in Jujuy, in an interview with Argenpapa.

The conversation took place within a research project on potato marketing in Buenos Aires wholesale markets, carried out by the Social Sciences Department of the Unidad Integrada Balcarce.

Where round varieties once dominated, the markets now work mainly with Spunta, Sagitta and Innovator, Ortega notes. Presentation has improved too: bags have become more eye-catching and are sold closed or open-mouthed.

Prices form according to supply and demand, but weather in the different producing zones weighs heavily. Much of the commercial information now circulates through social media and digital tools, which Ortega sees as the best available instruments for selling and spreading product information.

Asked how he imagines potato marketing ten years from now, Ortega answers that wholesale markets and sales spaces must offer greater comfort and technology to both sellers and buyers. That, he says, would allow the fresh potato market to develop better.

Source: Argenpapa, interview with Efraín Ortega. Read the full interview at argenpapa.com.ar