A shortage of tampons in Argentina has turned demand for one of the most personal hygiene products into an economic debate about what has emptied store shelves of the product.

Government officials and product importers tossed blame at each other Wednesday, with Argentina insinuating that businesses are trying to drive up prices. Businesses, in turn, are blaming the government for slow import permits. The supply shortage may be a consequence of Argentina burning its bridges with foreign creditors, which has led to tighter supplies of foreign currency, hurting imports.



Speaking to reporters, Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich said there were no special restrictions on importing tampons, which he called “sensitive products”, and blamed the shortage on a commercial “strategy” by importers.

But Miguel Ponce, head of the Chamber of Importers, blamed government regulations.

In general, he said, authorities have been slow to issue import permits for several products. And some companies have had trouble getting access to foreign currency, he said.

In recent months, Argentina has tightened its already strict control of foreign currencies in an attempt to curb inflation and capital flight. The government hopes that, by restricting currency exchanges, it will protect reserves at home needed to pay off its debts. That has often made it hard for importers to get the funds they need to buy products abroad.

Argentina’s defiant refusal to settle with its hedge-fund creditors drove the country into a technical default last year. Finance minister Axel Kicillof said recently that “we are not crawling through the desert to find every last dollar”.



The restrictions on imports, combined with the high rate of inflation in Argentina’s economy, South America’s second-largest, have led in recent years to periodic shortages of pharmaceutical products including latex gloves and needles.

Tampons have become scarce in the past two weeks. Store shelves that normally stock them have been stripped bare in some coastal areas where tourists flock during South America’s warm summer months.

Marcelo Yarmaian, a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson, one of the main providers of tampons in Argentina, told the country’s official news agency Telam that the shortages were mainly of boxes of the most popular sizes and quantities, not of tampons overall. The company said it was working with distributors to make sure “the product is available on the shelves shortly”.

Daniela Perez, 30, said she could not find tampons when she was vacationing over New Year’s in La Lucila del Mar, a coastal city 222 miles (358km ) south-east of Buenos Aires.

“I was looking for three days,” Perez said Wednesday while shopping at a Buenos Aires pharmacy that did not have any tampons in stock. “Luckily, my sister, who was there, saved me. She had some that I brought back to Buenos Aires.”

Argentina imports most of its tampons from neighboring Brazil, said Ponce, the head of the importers’ chamber. He said it would take a few weeks for the situation to normalise, in part because of panic buying.

“People see the news, get alarmed, and then go out and stock up,” he told news site Infobae.

In recent days, Twitter has exploded with jokes and complaints about the shortage. Some said Argentina was becoming more like Cuba and Venezuela, where hygiene products frequently are hard to find.

Claudio Guerschuny, a Buenos Aires pharmacist, told television channel Todo Noticias that in addition to tampons there is a shortage of adult diapers and children’s swim diapers.

“We don’t have a single tampon,” she said. “Drug stores don’t have answers, and they also have not gotten any answers” from the government.