B&W Paper dissapearing

Hello list.
  I know this is an Alt processes list, but I think you´ll understand my
reason to post these questions.
Today I went to my usual darkroom supplier here in argentina to buy some
B&W paper and chemicals and found that there is no Agfa nor Kodak paper
available in the country (they told me no one is importing their papers)
and that leave us Ilford as the only option (+2 times more expensive than
the other two!), and that they stopped importing the Agfa chemicals too. I
used to print with Kodak FineArt FB or the Agfa FB papers with Neutol and
Agefix chemicals. Now I´m stucked with Ilford paper (extremely expensive
here! 1 pound=5,5 pesos argentinos) and Kodak chemicals. I´ll use Dektol
for paper (good option?) and I´ll make my own fixer.

I knew this would come sooner or later, but it seems pretty soon to me!!
What are the economic and reliable options regarding papers abroad?. I
think I´ll have to depend on friends travelling and buying boxes of paper
for me in B&H... Did Agfa and Kodak really stop production of their B&W
papers?

We used to get only those brands. Agfa, Ilford and Kodak.
Some years ago I thought that due to the upcoming digital revolution, the
big brands would stop producing their films and photograhpic chemicals and
papers and new small brands would come to light with their artesanal
++++expensive products. But I think they took me by surprise!

Thanks for the income!

Agustin Barrutia
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Received on Mon Jan 23 21:50:01 2006