The herb producers of San Pedro, in the north-central area of Misiones, started this week a cessation of harvest to demand a 100% increase in the price of green leaves which they deliver to the dryers. The growers hope that in the next few days other producing areas will join the forceful measure which aims to bring the reference price of the raw material to 505 pesos.
This Tuesday the herbalists added the support of the Federation of Rural and Forestry Associations of Misiones (FARM). In a statement, the body specified that it “accompanies the cessation of marketing ordered by the producers of the province until an agreement on prices is obtained with the millers and harvesters” and invited “the industry to make its maximum efforts “to improve the situation. price” of the green leaf and yerba cantada (dried, not ground).
“The industry has always corrected the results to the detriment of producers in all the country’s production chains.. It’s a constant. But at FARM we will not stop defending primary producers and accompanying the fight with just demands”, they observed.
Furthermore, there was a request to the National Government, which must appoint the new president of the National Institute of Yerba Mate (INYM), a body that must continue to set the reference values because the Misiones Justice has blocked the presidential decree which he removed that feature.
In November last year, through an award, The Ministry of Agriculture has established staggered increases for green leaves and grass.but those prices were completely delayed after the sharp devaluation and inflationary surge of December and January.
According to this scheme, producers should receive no less than 210 pesos per kilo of green leavesbut almost all industries already pay 250 pesos, a figure which, according to the provision, will only come into force on March 1st.
The decision to stop harvesting was made on Friday during a producers’ meeting in San Pedro. Tomorrow, herbalists from Aristóbulo del Valle and Dos de Mayo are also likely to join. As the days go by, those self-convened are trying to extend the measure to the rest of the province and therefore force the industrialists to negotiate.
Ariel Steffen, one of the leaders of the self-convened groups, said that there is concern among herbalists because “the price doesn’t even cover the costs” of production; and this implies very low payments for the collectors.
Steffen said that “we spoke with the directors of INYM and asked for the price to be updated” and said that the measure they took was “to defend each other. “We all agree on this.”
The producer said that with the current value of the yerba package – which is no longer controlled by the Ministry of Internal Trade as it was until last December -, dryers and mills could pay the price that growers ask for the green leaf. “By selling (the package) for 2,500 pesos they were able to pay what we asked for. On the shelves, the kilo does not go below 3,000 pesos and if we made an equivalence, the figures should be enough to pay us 505 pesos per kilo of green leaf,” he explained.
Steffen believes that more producers will participate in Wednesday’s meeting in Aristóbulo del Valle than last week because with the current values ”we cannot work, there is no way to close the numbers”.
The measurement of the strength of the producers occurs two weeks before the INYM begins sessions to set the new reference values, relying on the court ruling that blocked the application of the presidential decree that abolished the Institute’s functions. Despite this, it is likely that the millers will choose not to attend, a measure that would also be adopted by the director of the province of Corrientes.
The law establishing the INYM establishes that the presidency of the council is entrusted to a representative of the national government, who has not yet been appointed despite the transfer of power taking place on 10 December. The previous president, Juan José Szychowski, had resigned a few days earlier to take up the role of provincial deputy of the ruling party.
Source: Clarin
