Textile inflation: a coat is already worth the rent of a two-room apartment

History seems to repeat itself every season. For him import clamp and the rise of the blue dollar, winter clothes will also be few stock and high prices: Major apparel brands assure that input and raw material shortages continue, generating more limited production.

Brands, as usual for these dates, have already launched the announcement of the season Autumn-winter 2023. Garments that coexist with liquidation products, arrived with prices above inflation, with an increase that is on average 100%. A coat to face the next cold weather already costs $100,000.

According to data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec), clothing accumulated a growth of 84.3% in the 12 months from January 2022 to January 2023, a number in the one that influenced price agreements which the Government agreed with the sector, after it was one of the items with the largest increase in the last year. The item Clothing and footwear increased by 120%, according to 94.8% of the general index. In greater Buenos Aires alone, the price of clothing and material items rose by more than 129 percent, according to official data.

In September, the sector agreed with the Government not to raise prices until the end of 2022, and in December it extended that commitment until the last day of February 2023.

"The main problem is that today the reference prices of almost all inputs have been lost", he describes Horacio Ernesto del Burgo, President of the Argentine Chamber of Textiles and Related Innovations (Caita).

The problem is not new. But he worries about the new season starting soon. "There are difficulties in transferring payments to foreign service providers. It started last year and continues today. We will continue with supply difficulties. This is understandable because the country lacks dollars," explained the textile entrepreneur.

The sector assures that the models from last season will not be surprising this year. A lot of raw materials did not arrive in time for production, so it was decided to reduce the available stocks that are already in the windows of some brands..

In addition to the complications that stocks brought to imports, there is also lack of workshops: many closed pandemic and others do not have available labor force today. This translates into higher values.

Almost a hundred percent gap between the official dollar and the dollar blue This means that the workforce that supplied this industry has disappeared. "For foreigners, the change is no longer useful to send dollars to their families. So today workshops are announcing huge increases because, since there is no workforce, they have little capacity to absorb work. Added to this is the strong reduction of workshops that occurred in the market during the pandemic", they explain in one of the main brands of women's clothing.

It is added to this the difficulty companies have in importing machinery to increase or, in many cases, maintain their production levels. "The investments we made in increasing capacity were delayed due to complications in importing machinery," he explained. Ignacio Guerrieri, Commercial Brand Manager Le Utthe, which has 57 of its own stores across the country.

"Today we are at a critical stage to be able to help our union with the repair needs of their machines due to the agonizing lack of spare parts for imported machines. A great graveyard of unusable machines due to lack of spare parts is starting," he explained. From Burg.

Namely, from the chamber that brings together the sector, they explained that many customers travel to Chile to buy spare parts so that they can continue production.

"The price increase is on the back burner, today there is no scontact neither inputs nor fabrics. The entry of raw materials from abroad is almost impossible. It is more difficult to be able to import machines. It's a real headache to work like this," he added.

Cover, rent

The values ​​of new season clothes have unusual prices. Buying a woman's coat costs as much as renting a two-room apartment.

"Reference values ​​have been lost. People don't really know what things are worth anymore, and leading brands have very high prices that point to a very specific market"Del Burgo added.

"In that context, it is very difficult to be profitable. But for us, the job is to sell volume. That's why we maintain competitive prices. That's our niche," he explained. Guerrieri.

The jacket of one of the main national brands of women's clothing begins $68,000 and goes up to $125,000 in the new season. In the second label, also one of the benchmarks in the field, those covered have an average price of $106,000. In the third chain, the cheapest option starts at $65,000.

For these values, It is possible to rent a studio or two-room apartment in the Caballito or Palermo districts of Buenos Aires.