The government and the cereal companies, close to the agreement

The cereal companies have given the green light to implement an incentive plan aimed at advancement exports. The mechanism was launched last week by the Central Bank and it is expected that the final details for its final implementation will be defined on Thursday.

These are dollar accounts to stimulate external pre-financing and the advance of exports of up to 5,000 million dollars. The idea is that agricultural, oil, mining, meat and fishing companies bring foreign currency obtained from foreign credit or prepayment of sales into the country and deposit it in banks in that currency, without the need to convert it into pesos. In return, the Central Bank will issue dollar debt.

Until now, when a business had to go to an overseas bank to seek out a loan to finance exports, it was obliged to liquidate those dollars within 5 days and get hold of pesos. “Now that situation will change, the rule was published on Friday and we hope it will be implemented on Thursday”affirmed an agro-export source, for which the measure “generates a positive condition”.

One of the points that raised doubts was how the accounts would be remunerated. The Central Bank will offer a Dollar Note (NODO) for the amount of the deposit and a term of 180 days. The interest rate will be fixed by tender as a spread on the SOFER rate, currently close to 2.3% per annum. The first auction would be this week and on Thursday there will be a meeting with the banks, before the final review by the Central Council.

Sight accounts adjusted for the change in the official dollar have also been enabled for exporters who bring forward the liquidation of the foreign currency in more than 30 days with respect to the deadline set for each sector. It is a similar mechanism to the “soybean dollar”. Under the direction of Silvina Batakis, the BCRA allowed manufacturers to access the solidarity dollar for 30% of their sales and 70% to deposit an adequate deposit to the official dollar, but this had no impact.

The big unknown is whether the new ones will be enough for producers to sell their cereals to cereal companies. In the sector, they claim to reduce the exchange gap – now between 110 and 120% – to liquidate about 2,500 million dollars and believe that the prepayment of income tax complicates the negotiations. The Secretary of Agriculture, Juan José Bahillo, has planned to fix today with Massa the date of the meeting with the Liaison Table, but it has not yet been defined.

While the banks cautiously await the meeting, the government assures that there is already an agreement with the oil industry, collectors and cooperatives, so there will be no new announcements, as was assumed. “It is necessary that the cereal companies bring the money, the race will be this week and the banks do not have to do anything, just receive the changes from the companies, turn around and offer the banknotes”, say official sources.

According to Lorenzo Sigaut Gravina, Equilibra’s partner economist, since Martín Guzmán resigned, net reserves have been reduced by more than half, from $ 4,723 million to $ 2,228 million. In this context, the head of the Central Bank, Miguel Pesce, tried to clarify the picture assuring on Tuesday that China’s $ 20 trillion swap is “used”and that the dollar lace has not been touched.

The lack of foreign currency was one of the concerns that emerged this Tuesday at the meeting held by the Secretary of Industry, José De Mendiguren, with the leadership of the UIA. Industrialists led by Daniel Funes de Rioja have called for a working table to expand access to foreign currency to purchase capital goods and supplies, while showing concern over Profits’ prepayment, with which they seek to raise $ 200,000 million.