The Secretary of Agriculture has promised to manage the lowering of rates in front of the Central Bank

The Field Liaison Table entered a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture with little expectation this Thursday, but after 2 hours the rural leaders left relatively satisfied, because Juan José Bahillo, the host, analyzed the various problems that were raised and managed to convey the possibility of concrete measures.

To solve the most conflicting knot on the agenda, Bahillo shared his disagreement with the Central Bank rate hike for soybean producers. he asked the farmers to submit a formal request to the Ministry of Economy and promised them accompany them in the complaint.

The meeting was attended by Jorge Chemes (president of the CRA), Carlos Achetoni (head of the Agricultural Federation) and Elbio Laucirica (deputy of Coninagro). No leader of the Argentine Rural Society attended, although the entity’s economist, Ezequiel De Freijo, did.

Precisely the reason for the absence of Nicolás Pino, president of the SRA, was the inconvenience with the Central Bank’s measure. In various public statements, the leader said that it is “a measure that sounds extorted and discriminatory, harming the country’s agricultural producers”.

At a joint press conference at the end of Thursday’s Agriculture meeting, the peasants warned him They will not have other meetings with the government “if this resolution is not revoked”. As requested by Bahillo, they will demand immediate elimination, Chemes said.

For his part, Achetoni agreed that dialogue with the government is “almost impossible” if the provision is not revoked. “It’s a very strong contradiction asking the industry to liquidate soybeans to get out of the trance they have with the need for foreign currency, while at the same time hindering the next campaign of that harvest. We are facing a drought and many producers prefer to keep stocks before a possible bad harvest. “

On the other hand, as Chemes explains, there has been talk of what regional economies need, which we have already talked about, they understand. Basically exchange rate unification is required and they accepted the suggestion to implement a revolving fund. We insist on the fact that all proposals must go directly to the producer, because otherwise the aids or differentials are diluted between the links in the supply chain and do not benefit the producer. It was clear, they accepted it and in principle we are working on this ”.

Laucirica assessed that “it was possible to talk about the problems affecting regional economies and small producers, thanks to the implementation of a patch such as the dollar differential for soybeans. Therefore, let’s analyze the alternatives to fix the distortions that have been generated. The gap and the delay in trade take away the competitiveness of production and of the country as a whole, which is accentuated in the regional economies because they have many internal costs ».

Chemes clarified that the numbers were not discussed, despite the fact that on Sunday 4 the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, spoke of 50,000 million dollars as aid to regional economies, but that Bahillo was told that the benefits must go directly to the producers, avoiding compensation or other more cumbersome systems.

“Everything that is differential, they end up in other links in the supply chain and do not reach the producers. It was clear, they accepted it and we will work on that line ”, assured the leader, who attended accompanied by Marcos Williams and Daniel Lavallén, from the Department for Regional Economies of the CRA.