In a climate of increasing tension, the countryside awaits today's announcements by the Government on inflation. Retentions of soybean meal and oil are expected to increase from 31% to 33%, after the Ministry of Agriculture decided last Sunday afternoon and surprisingly close exports of both by-products.
From that moment until today, the members of the agricultural sector began a series of mobilizations in the interior, in areas of Santa Fe and Córdoba, and today Buenos Aires will join. The objective is to express the discomfort of leaders and producers over the agricultural policy being carried out by the Government of Alberto Fernández, with a permanent change in the rules of the game.
As this medium was able to learn from different sources that were part of the negotiations, the additional money will be used to increase the withholdings of soy by-products mentioned above, which according to the Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange is estimated at 425 million dollars, will be the subsidy of the flour that arrives in bakeries, whose price has risen in recent weeks and from there moved to the price of bread. The conflict generated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to an increase in international prices for grains, especially wheat. That is why the Government seeks to ensure that there is no escalation in the value of the kilo of bread.
The president of the 27 de Abril Baker Center in Avellaneda, Gastón Mora, commented days ago that the exchange of flour for shops was obtained between 1,050 and 1,100 pesos and then reached 1,800 pesos. In Santa Cruz, for example, they are selling it for 2,000 pesos. “We are totally forced to transfer it to the price of bread, because it is not an increase of 50 pesos, but it was 400 to 600 pesos per bag. At less than 200 pesos per kilo there will be very few bakeries that can sell it to bread. The ones I am talking to already sell it at 270, 280 or, even, at 300 pesos per kilo,” he pointed out to this media outlet.
While the Government is launching this package of measures to combat inflation, several studies have been published that show that the productive sector has a low impact on the final price of food. In the case of bread, according to the latest statistics from the Agricultural Foundation for the Development of Argentina (FADA), wheat represents 12.9% of the final value of bread, the mill 5.2%, the bakery 60.4% and taxes 21.5%. On the other hand, this price is composed of 67% of costs, 21.5% taxes and 11.5% profits. In addition, the price of wheat is multiplied by 7 from the field until the bread reaches the gondola.
Following the official decision to close exports of oil and soybean meal, different mobilizations of producers were carried out in the productive interior. Although the same ones with little public attendance, a roadmap is beginning to be marked of where the trade union claim would go. Among the strongest proposals that emerged from the meetings were a march to the Federal Capital and that of a national strike. “We all agree that we need a change of course as a country, this system has already proved to be a failure for everyone who wants to work in this country,” Alejandro Dalmaso told Infobae, after participating in the Assembly in the Altos Fierro district of Cordoba.
All proposals arising from the assemblies will have to be analysed within the framework of the Liaison Table, which for the time being remains cautious pending official measures, and preparing a meeting for next week with national legislators in Congress. The idea of the leaders is to state that the retentions “are illegal”, since they consider that the power of the Government to modify their scheme expired on 31 December. And since this power is not renewed, the producers' representatives argue that the withholdings are currently “0%”. The Argentine Rural Society, together with the rural society of Jesús María, took its claim to the Justice of Cordoba.
Today the assemblies will continue in the province of Buenos Aires, organized by a group of rural people in the north of Buenos Aires. It will be at 10:30am in a hall located on Route 191 km 6.5, in the San Pedro area. Due to adverse weather conditions, the decision was taken, the producers' meeting had to be moved to that place, since in principle it had as its convening place at km 146 of Route 6, at the height of Baradero.
Yesterday a group of leaders of Together for Change, led by Congressman Cristian Ritondo, sent a letter to the Governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, asking him to “defend the countryside”. In this regard, the legislator said: “It is time for Governor Kicillof to deal with the strategic issues of the Province, including del Campo, which so far has not been able to solve due to disability or neglect. Our Province must be an ally of rural producers, but Kicillof quietly accepts confiscatory measures against the countryside and becomes an employee of the National Government.”
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