Costa Rica News – When the Christmas holidays arrive in Costa Rica it mean it is Tamale time It is a Costa Rican tradition in many families to come together as a family to make tamales. And boy are they good it is hard to find one that is the same as another, so you might as well eat them all.
Tamale season won’t be the same this year, because the ingredients to make them went up in price by around 12 percent!
This statistic is brought to us by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade along with a survey of businesses in the Central Market in San José.
The value for ingredients to make 100 tamales in 2013 was ¢19,378 and now it is ¢21,933. It might not seem like a lot but many of the ladies in the country make hundreds each year for family, friends and neighbors, so it adds up.
The analysis established that shopping at markets will save money, because the price for the same ingredients in the most expensive supermarkets is up to 69% more expensive than at the markets.
The list of ingredients they included in this study was chosen by a poll done by the magazine “Sabores.” Of them, 2 were reduced in price, 6 remained the same and 13 rose in price.
String beans and sweet peppers were the ingredients that most increased in price.
