As families are preparing to buy fresh tamales this holiday season, many small businesses are feeling the pain of the rising cost of ingredients.

“Now there are not a lot of orders for tamales,” Irma Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez is the owner of the Tortilleria Factory in McAllen. She said she’s worked there for 25 years, and the rising costs of ingredients for tamales are causing a 25% decrease in sales for tamales.

“The corn husk was $14, now we are buying them for $17.50,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez says she was forced to pass along the extra cost to her customers.

“We needed to increase our tamale prices,” Gonzalez said. 

Gonzalez said she used to sell her tamales for $10 per dozen. Now they’re $12 per dozen.

“We had customers telling us, ‘this was the price before, and now you are charging me at this price.’ It's because they need to understand everything is increasing,” Gonzalez said. “We try not to increase our tamale prices too much because there are other high places. We want to make it affordable."

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