By Hilary Burke BUENOS AIRES, March 31 (Reuters) - Isabel Gimenez can't afford fruit or vegetables anymore -- shortages tied to a 19-day farmers strike have simply pushed prices too high. So her five children will have to eat a fruit-flavored gelatin dessert and instant mashed potatoes instead. Supermarket shelves looked increasingly forlorn on Monday in the capital Buenos Aires, with supplies squeezed by the strike over higher soy export taxes. With farmers refusing to send their goods to market, Argentines' beloved beef is the scarcest item, but milk, eggs, chicken and fresh produce also have become either harder to find or prohibitively expensive. "It's a little scary seeing everything half-empty, especially if you have kids," single mother Gimenez, 45, said while shopping at a discount supermarket. "Both the government and the farmers are being capricious and we all have to pay the price." Negotiations to end the strike failed last week and although the government was expected to unveil measures to help small farmers on Monday evening, it was not clear whether talks with farm leaders would resume. Farmers also are blocking roadways throughout the agricultural heartland to keep food from being transported. Meatpackers said they might have to lay off thousands of workers if the strike continues, and frustrated truckers scuffled with farmers at some roadblocks. Some rotten food was delivered over the weekend to the main wholesale market serving Buenos Aires, and vendors threatened to sue farm groups for their losses, according to local media. Butcher Luis Medina said he had not seen such severe meat shortages in 20 years of work. His shop is selling only sausages and hot dogs, with no beef, pork or lamb on hand. "We don't even have meat to take home ourselves," he said. Argentines are the world's biggest beef eaters with the average person consuming nearly 152 pounds (69 kg) a year. The number of office workers eating lunch at Desnivel, one neighborhood steakhouse, has dropped as beef prices leaped upward, restaurant manager Tito Portillo said. The cost of succulent "bife de chorizo" steaks has jumped 40 percent, and filet mignon is up 45 percent to 32 pesos ($10) a plate, which foreigners might be able to afford but many Argentines cannot, Portillo said. Pablo Grima, a 21-year-old avid consumer of red meat, said his mother has been cooking chicken and pasta instead of beef since the farm protest began. "Sometimes I'm dying for a beef cutlet or steak, but I can't say anything to my mom, she's not to blame," Grima said. ($1 = 3.185 Argentine pesos) (Editing by Patricia Zengerle)
Argentine border police officers clear a road blockade to allow trucks to pass in Gualeguaychu March 31, 2008. Argentine farmers angry over soy export taxes manned roadblocks on Monday as the ...
