A report indicates that several Argentine companies have altered their business models to begin importing products that they previously manufactured. The investigation revealed that the strategic shift suggests significant layoffs and the sale of imported goods in Argentina at prices “well above their import costs.” The report indicates that the transition is observable across multiple sectors — “kitchenware, automobiles, household appliances, footwear, furniture, cell phones, food, and personal care products.” The report stated “In all the cases examined, the same trend emerges: increased imports of finished goods, decreased local production, and a decline in industrial employment.” The IPyPP report indicates that three umbrella policies, enacted since Javier Milei assumed office in December 2023, have compelled companies to adjust their strategies: tariff liberalization, currency appreciation, and a contraction of the local market resulting from declining wages. INDEC, the government’s statistics institute, reported a decline of 8.7% in manufacturing industrial production for February 2026, relative to the same month in 2025. A category encompassing computers, televisions, and communications devices experienced a decline of 24.6%, marking the most significant year-over-year decrease. Automobiles and garments subsequently experienced declines of 24% and 22.6%, respectively.
Furthermore, as of November 2023, the sector has experienced a loss of 100,000 jobs, translating to an average of 160 jobs lost each day, according to a report from the Center for Studies on Argentine and Latin American Industry and the Center for Studies in Argentine and Latin American Economic History at the University of Buenos Aires. The IPyPP report indicated that, since 2023, there has been a 44% rise in imported consumer goods and a 207% surge in imported vehicles. “These are not production inputs or capital goods, but rather final consumer goods,” stated Martín Schorr in an interview. Companies, he noted, are capitalizing on the emerging circumstances. In 2025, local company Lumilagro initiated its importation of branded thermoses from China, bringing in a total of 65,490 finished thermoses. By the first two months of 2026, the company had already imported 40,626 units. Easy, a home improvement retailer, imported furniture and home goods for $10 million in 2023, while it did so for $27 million in 2025. In January 2025, a subcontracted manufacturing facility associated with the Adidas multinational, situated in Coronel Suárez, Buenos Aires, declared its closure. The outcome was the termination of employment for 360 factory workers.
In 2025, the company imported around 9 million pairs of shoes, in contrast to fewer than 2 million in 2023. However, this does not inherently imply that consumers are acquiring their products at the import price. Lumilagro offers a thermos with an import cost of AR$8,178, retailing for AR$44,000 before taxes, representing a markup of 5.4 times the import cost. At Easy, a folding chair incurs an import cost of AR$4,230 and is retailed at AR$32,000, representing a markup of 7.6 times the initial cost. Adidas offers a pair of sneakers with an import cost of approximately AR$26,790, retailing at AR$100,000, reflecting a markup of 3.7 times. The report indicated that the shift suggested “the erosion of technological and productive capacities accumulated over many years and job losses in the industrial sector.” The report indicated that in November 2025, Whirlpool shuttered its facility in the Buenos Aires locality of Pilar, which had commenced operations in 2022.
Nearly 300 workers lost their jobs as a result. Nevertheless, this production shock did not impede the company’s commercial expansion: imports of completed washing machines, refrigerators, and freezers persisted in their upward trajectory,” stated the investigation. In 2025, the company imported 67,000 washing machines, a significant increase from the 29,000 units imported in 2023. Consequently, following the plant’s closure and the implementation of its restructuring strategy, imports of components and supplies necessary for washing machine production decreased from AR$16 million to nearly zero in the initial months of 2026. “Deindustrialization during the first two years of Milei’s administration exceeds the trends observed during other neoliberal experiments, such as the 90s one peso=one dollar era or the [Mauricio] Macri administration [2015-2019],” stated Schorr. “Large companies play a central role in this process,” he added.