The measure of the Central can affect up to 17,000 farms

The Central Bank restricted access to fiat dollars (savings, MEP and liquidated cash) for all companies that bought or sold soybeans in September taking advantage of the special exchange rate at 200 pesos per dollar. Individuals, as explained by both the Central Bank and the Secretary of Agriculture Juan José Bahillo, were not included in the measure.

Juan Manuel Garzón, economist at the Mediterranea Foundation, analyzed the tax register of AFIP cereal operators to understand the potential scope of the measure in the production segment. As he explained, there are 60,000 registered producers, of which there are 43,000 natural persons (producers) and 17,000 legal persons (Deal). Although it does not identify what type of production is carried out, it is deduced that the vast majority (companies and producers) grow soybeans.

Similarly, the economist explained that this AFIP record does not detail the production scale, but the latest agricultural census (from 2018) reflects that farms, while being much less than individual producers, manage 50 percent of the agricultural area. In other words, the power plant’s provision affects a minority, but it is the one that concentrates the greatest volume of production.

Manuel Becu, producer in the Chacabuco and Pergamino area, explains that his company sold many soybeans in September, to be collected in October at the exchange rate of 200 pesos, with the aim of dollarizing through the MEP dollar to safeguard the value, but now, the way the company operates as a partnership will not be able to purchase MEP dollars.

In this context, they will have to analyze what to do so that the pesos they will charge do not lose value. “If you have everything in white, like in our case, you can’t go to the blue dollar because you can’t justify it. We are seeing the stock company we invest in to give us some kind of value safeguard, or some investment, but They don’t even want to invest in the country. when they take a measure that hurts you, ”he says.

Becu still has ten days to decide what to do with those pesos. The first thing, he assures us, is to pay off all outstanding debtsyes, but you’ll still have cash on hand because what you sold is a lot of soybeans. “One option to get rid of the pesos and go to something that is not affected by inflation is the cryptocurrency market. This is not what we wanted to do initially, we will lose money compared to the original plan, but even if it is, we will find a safeguard of the value, ”he explains.

The tool offered by the government for these cases is linked dollar adjusted accounts. “Companies that have sold soy under the Export Enhancement Program, and which have been reached by Communication A 7609, maintain the tools that allow them to leave their sales in the adjusted dollar linked accounts,” the Central said. .

Becu says: “I don’t know if this restriction on access to the dollar will ultimately result in a loss in value, but what the measure affects is on the spirit of the producer. When the government needed us to sell, we sold and now they let go of your hand. It’s a totally ungrateful sign that I think will be reflected when it comes to selling wheat and when it comes to selling soybeans next winter. “

For his part, Francisco Perkins, a producer from the Pehuajó area in western Buenos Aires, complains that politics “continues to segment between people and companies without understanding that companies are people.” “The campaign, and most of the articles, is full of family businesses operating under the corporate umbrella. These measures end up undermining the spirit of associativism which is one of the most important tools for development “, he warns. And then adds:” The measures have an impact on all parts: if you sell you don’t have access to the best tool to maintain the value on that sale, and if you don’t sell it becomes access to credit is more expensive, making them unsustainable. They offer you an alleged advantage that ends up being surrounded by damage. “

Meanwhile, the export boost program is still in place. On Tuesday, according to export sources, 650,000 tons of soybeans were sold and $ 350 million settled, with which the volume traded since the entry into force of the Mass version of the dollar of soybeans reaches 9,569,046 tons of soybeansfor a value close to 5 billion dollars that the government and exporters had initially set as a target.