Nicolás Pino: “Country people don’t sell for fear of what the dollar might be worth tomorrow”

Judging by the number of people who visit it, by the technological innovations that are expressed both in the genetics of cattle breeds and in the machinery and, above all, in the enthusiasm of the exhibitors, that this year’s Rural exhibition in Palermo represents a milestone, after its return due to the protracted pandemic.

That expression of what the field produces is also marked the political and economic crisis and the profound uncertainty in which we live. While the president of the Rural Society, Nicolás Pino, is visiting the property, he is interrupted by members and visitors. they ask him what do you know? And shrugs.

-The government wants the field to liquidate more dollars, what should happen to make it happen ?, Clarín asks him.

-The manufacturing sector has contributed hundreds of billions to export rights, the company needs to show what it has done with that money. Poverty rose to these shameful numbers in a country that produces food for 400 million people. The politics of the past 25 years must tell us why we continue to live with this inflation which some say is already at 90% this year.

-But if they gave them a special dollar, would the producer remove the grains from the silo bag?

-We must be clear, if the producer keeps the sack in the silo, it is because he harvests once a year and when he harvests first he pays the bills and saves for what comes next, which is what will happen when in a few weeks he starts sowing the dense harvest. It is a store of value due to rampant inflation. A producer who harvested in May and sold at that time and saved in pesos today does not have the ability to buy back the inputs. This is why many save to protect themselves in order to invest. We are very far from what the President said that we speculate, it was inappropriate and disrespectful when he addressed the countryside as a sector that he speculates. With all due respect, the President is wrong.

-So, Pino there will be no liquidation of what was left of the harvest in this context …

-If we travel 50 kilometers along the Río de la Plata, we arrive in Uruguay. How can it be that they don’t have these problems there? We get $ 86 for soy, $ 115 for meat, but if I go to buy a cover it’s $ 350. I don’t know how much that dollar must be, but an equal exchange rate is required. People don’t sell for fear of what the dollar might be worth tomorrow. The world is upset by the war if the agreement between Russia and Ukraine is respected, plus prices will fall.

– And to what do you attribute what we are experiencing?

-I have one certainty and it is that Argentina has once again turned the face of an opportunity to a world that requires food, which is what we do. It is likely that less wheat has been sown in hectares, we have no certainty in Argentina under the leadership of the front it governs. The government has lost the confidence of the productive sectors and must be reversed with concrete measures.

– Do you have a dialogue with the government?

-Our contact person is the Minister of Agriculture, we have an open telephone, we often disagree but I cannot help but have a dialogue and if the President calls us, of course we go.

-What would happen if the withholdings were to decrease?

The Rural Society has filed an amparo action because we believe that the withholdings are illegal because there is no law that protects them, I have heard that they could lower the withholdings for 90 days, what happened to what it has already sold is wrong . The law must be equal. If they are thinking of a decline, show them with a longer beacon and put an end to the retentions: they will be surprised by the potential of the field. With this economic policy we all lose competitiveness and the country loses it vis-à-vis our neighbors.

– Next Saturday there is the official inauguration of Palermo, did you invite the President?

-We invite the President, the ministers, the governors. So far there is no answer, I hope they will come and tell us what they will do. This sector is very dynamic and this exhibition is developing with enormous added value. People participate massively because it is a cultural fact and many were waiting for this moment.