After rejecting the request for a hearing from the Liaison Commission for Agricultural Entities (CEEA) in December, the nation’s economy minister, Sergio Massa, finally convened a meeting of the leaders of the sector. the meeting It will take place tomorrow Friday at 10 in the city of San Pedro, Buenos Aires, in the premises of the local National Institute of Agricultural Technology.
“We will convene the Liaison Table to propose a follow-up over the next 90 days, region by region, looking at satellite maps of precipitation, INTA satellite maps of soil moisture, sector by sector, and comparing 2022 versus 2023 profitability decline Beyond the export issue, the first thing to look at is the damage to Argentine producers,” the official said last weekend.
Ceea has not yet decided whether it will participate, it will define it this afternoon in a meeting of the four entities. If they participate, they will bring a list of demands to San Pedro that they say must receive urgent attention and resolution in the face of a drought that has worsened. The topics of the meeting will concern the measurement of the effects of the water crisis, the definition of how producers can be helped to face them and to face the next crops. For this reason, representatives of Banco Nación, the Federal Administration of Public Revenues and INTA will also be present, as well as the Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Nation, Juan José Bahillo.
“We believe that Drought is a central issue on the agenda not only in the countryside but also in the country. Manufacturers are very concerned about this problem, but we know it is also a problem for the government’s macroeconomics. There’s a lot of dollars that won’t be there,” she said. Nicolás Pino, president of the Argentine Rural Society (Mrs.).
“the situation is serious. Some time ago, when we asked the minister for a meeting, we brought a series of requests, but now we already have confirmation of the damages: the wheat campaign is over and the losses are between 40% and 50%, according to various estimates . ”, indicated Elbio Laucirica, president of Coninagrothe body that brings together agricultural cooperatives.
As for the gross crop, “we already have irreversible crop damage, even if it rains tomorrow, the damage may be less, but what has been lost so far is irreversible,” the leader lamented. For example, in the central region, the country’s most productive region, expectations for soybeans at the start of the campaign were 45 percent higher than today’s forecasts. A harvest of 19.7 million tons has been estimated and today it is expected to produce 10.7 million tons and “the number is decreasing every week”, as reported by the Rosario Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, export losses exceed $14 billion.
“All of this will be seen at the time of the harvest: we will not have production, the foreign currency that the Government and the country need to function will not enter, there will be no work even for local economies, this will seriously damage the economy and the services of city of the interior”, explained Laucirica.
Coninagro represents 19 agricultural productions throughout the national territory and according to the institution, 80% are in a critical situation. “We have problems not only in cereals, livestock and dairy farms, but also in yerba mate, cotton, grapevine, fruit growing, regional economies and the pampas,” he said.
Therefore, they ask for tax breaks. “We are paying export duties with the little grain that will be harvested, advances on profits that we will not have, withheld VAT,” Laucirica listed. “Paying withholdings when we have 50% of production makes no sense“, He added.
From the link table, request the suspension of advances on profits as well as VAT withholdings. And they ask for it to be granted concessional credit lines so that producers can meet their debts.
“From the management we are working to dialogue also with mayors and governors so that they understand the crisis we are going through and just as we ask the national government not to continue paying advances, we understand that the other powers must not raise taxes in this situation”, he counted Pine tree.
“We need a series of fiscal and credit measures to be able to meet the responsibilities producers will have with the financial commitments of this campaign and those they will have to assume for the next campaign,” said Laucirica. Additionally, she has asked for assistance for “many farmers who have dead animals and need to rebuild their livestock.”
At the meeting of the Liaison Table with Bahillo and the Ministers of Agriculture and Production of five provinces held in Rosario on December 26, Coninagro presented a list of urgent measures. Firstly, it was decided to accelerate the local, provincial and national declarations of Emergency and Agricultural Disaster so that, depending on the case, the suspension of Irpef Advances, extensions or exemptions, depending on the cases, taxes. provincial; and factor the forced sale of wombs into your income tax calculation.
He also proposes to repeal the resolution that increases the interest of soybean producers; modify or provide that producers in situations of emergency and/or calamity do not see their condition of access to credit modified.
Likewise, it has been asked to extend credits to producers in emergencies and/or disasters, and who do not see their authorization in the banks concerned for this; promote bank loans at affordable and subsidized rates to meet the commercial and financial commitments of the producers concerned; generate lines of working capital and/or plant for the next campaign under the same conditions; and extend the expiry dates of the rural cards with the aforementioned concessions.
On the other hand, he called for the addition of cattle herd restructuring credits for those producers who had to make forced sales due to lack of grass and those who suffered animal mortality.
As regards AFIP, Coninagro has requested the suspension of IRPEF withholding taxes on product sales (cereals, livestock, etc.) for the 2022/23 campaign, as well as VAT on inputs (fertilizers, crop protection products and seeds) for the 2023 campaign /24.
Source: Clarin
