By MARK LORENZANA

Despite the tortilla being one of the 24 products of Mexico’s basic basket included in the Package Against Inflation and Famine (PACIC), its price has increased from May to September of this year.

On April 4, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced to the public a new price-control initiative — the PACIC – that established cost protection for 24 “basic basket” supermarket items, as established by Mexico’s Federal Consumer Protection Office (Profeco).

However, based on data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), between April and September of this year, the price of corn tortillas increased by 6.83 percent, while based on the annual rate in September, its price rose 15.4 percent.

In Mexico City, tortilla shops recently increased their price between one and two pesos per kilo — a kilo of the Mexican staple now costs an average of 22 pesos in the capital.

In other parts of the country, though, the price per kilo of tortillas are now even more expensive. For instance, based on Inegi statistics, the price per kilo of tortillas now costs 30 pesos in Acapulco, Guerrero, and 27 pesos, in Culiacán, Sinaloa.

The Profeco explained to Mexican daily newspaper Reforma that the tortilla is a free-price product, and that the PACIC only agreed to regulate its sale in self-service stores.