Perhaps the scandal that broke out before the World Cup because the players of the national team had chosen Uruguayan yerba to drink in Qatar was a pre-announcement of what would happen in 2022 with the Argentine yerba market.
Exports, although recovering compared to 2021, were not enough to compensate for the decline in the domestic market, a sign that the domestic economy it is hitting hard in the least resource sectors.
Last year, Argentines consumed 19,672 kilos less of yerba per day than they did in 2021. According to statistical data from the National Institute of Yerba Mate (INYM), the production of yerba from the mills (the data used to calculate consumption internal) fell 2.6%to 275,809,497 kilos.
After receiving 882,095,968 kilos of green leaf in 2021, the dryers received 829,237,261 kilos last year.
On the contrary, the departure of containers bound for abroad had an excellent recovery, going from 35,509,787 kilos to 40,304,006 kilos in the twelve months of 2022, an increase of 13.5%.
If we take the total of yerba mate marketed last year, red drops to 2,366,199 kilos, or an average of 6,482 kilos less per day than in 2021.
The economic situation has also generated changes in the behavior of Argentine farmers in front of the gondola. As for December 2021, the sale of two-kilo packs has grown, which went from 1% of the total to 1.63. The 250 gram package also had an increase, but to a lesser extent, which went from 0.87 to 0.89% of the total marketed.
the biggest losers were the kilo and half kilo formats: both held 95.12% of the total in December 2021 and a year later they fell to 94.03% of the preferences.
Despite the decline in sales, the president of INYM, Juan José Szychowski, argued that “it is necessary to highlight the increase in exports” and spoke of “maintenance of domestic market volumes”.
The leader underlined that “it has been a great job and commitment on the part of the chain to maintain the volumes despite worst drought ever recorded”.
Gerardo Vallejos, of the Cooperative pipersexplained that, “in a gondola, lweed is expensive for the consumeralthough it is cheap if you take into account what a package makes”.
In this sense he argued that “people are affected by low income but they have not stopped drinking mate”, although he did there have been some changes. “The economic situation has led people to take some measures. Some drink two thermos of mate without changing the yerba, Others have chosen to reduce the mate so that the pack lasts for more days,” Vallejos said.
The lowest demand for yerba mate produced the canchada stock grows (dry grass, without grinding) in industrial warehouses. “Today, yerba is accumulated to cover an entire year’s demand. Until recently, the escort lasted seven or eight months,” assured the group leader.
Vallejos said the image of Lionel Messi drinking mate during the World Cup in Qatar was very likely to boost yerba exports. “We believe it will affect exports. everything helps“, has indicated. And she underlined that “there is a new generation that demands natural products and there yerba mate has many possibilities”. In this sense, he said that “if we manage to get the young people of India to consume a lot of cooked mate a day, we could sell that country 120,000 kilos of yerba mate a day”.
Posadas (corresponding)
NEITHER
Source: Clarin
