Faced with the possibility of an increase in retentions for soybean oil and flour, which could even take effect in the coming hours, a group of opposition leaders asked the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, to speak out against this measure that would affect several towns in Buenos Aires. They accused him of being a “delegate” of the national authorities.
Through a letter entitled “Producers are not the problem, they are the solution”, deputies, mayors, legislators and councillors of Together for Change highlighted the consequences that an increase in export duties on these products could have for the district.
“Mr. Governor, we are hereby writing to you to express our concern at the imminent increase in withholding. We consider it a bad idea from every point of view: prices, collection, production, employment and institutional quality. It also constitutes an outrage of the Executive Power to both the productive sectors and the National Congress”, the text begins.
First, the opposition referents stressed that “of the 135 municipalities in the province of Buenos Aires, 128 carry out agro-industrial activities” and among them they represent “50% of all agro-industrial production in Argentina” and “between 36% and 40% of what is exported in this area”.
“Buenos Aires produces more than 50% of wheat, 90% of barley, 40% of corn and 40% of soybeans. The estimated growth potential is 35% higher than it currently has, but of course for this to be achieved we have to support our producers, not hinder them and change the rules of the game permanently,” they warned.
In this regard, the leaders pointed out that “the countryside is a risky activity and requires a lot of planning, like any productive activity”, so “failing to commit and speak, and raising taxes as the only variable of collection, is a measure that only a province marked by poverty generates”.
In addition, they stressed that “governors of Peronism such as (Juan) Schiaretti in Córdoba and (Omar) Perotti in Santa Fe” have already expressed their rejection of this initiative of the Executive Branch Nacional, something that did not happen with Kicillof, who so far had no opinion on it.
“We need more exports, more production, more work, and fewer obstacles from this government that remains without an economic plan and without direction. But that always advances with the same vision, the one that sees producers as an enemy rather than an Argentine who produces and benefits us all. Mr. Governor, it is time for you to abandon the role you are playing as delegate of the national government and begin to be the governor of all Buenos Aires”, concludes the letter.
The letter was signed by deputies Cristian Ritondo, Mercedes Joury, Alejandro Finocchiaro, Maria Lujan Rey, Gabriela Besana and Camila Crescimbeni, and legislators Walter Lanaro, Owen Fernández, Alex Campbell, Matías Ranzini, Anastasia Peralta Ramos, Juan Carrara, Sergio Siciliano, Santiago Passaglia, Noelia Ruiz and Johanna Panebianco.
Also by the mayors Manuel Passaglia (San Nicolás), Sebastián Abella (Campana), Martín Yeza (Pinamar), Lisandro Matzkin (Colonel Pringles) and Jorge Etcheverry (Lobos), as well as by a large number of Buenos Aires councillors.
“Our province must be an ally of rural producers, exercising the subsidiary power of the State to support, promote and complement all agricultural and livestock activities, but Kicillof quietly accepts confiscatory measures against the countryside and becomes an employee of the National Government,” said Ritondo, who led the claim.
For his part, Mayor Yeza also criticized the provincial president and remarked that an attempt had already been made to “ban the summer recently and now the drowning of Argentina's economic engine, which is the countryside,” he considered that these policies seem to be part of “a plan designed to make us all worse.”
Provincial Deputy Alex Campbell also said that “Kicillof governs the most agricultural province in the country, but nevertheless does not say anything to the advances of the National Government, which only sees the countryside as an inexhaustible source of resources.”
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