Mauricio Bártoli
07/24/2021 5:46 AM
Clarín.com
Rural
Updated 07/24/2021 5:46 AM
In the next maize season two historical records would be reached:
8.1 million hectares
of sowing and a national production of
60.5 million tons
, as estimated in the monthly bulletin of the
Ministry of Agriculture
, from where the cereal growth in the last 10 years, based on
"improvements in crop management"
and investments in better seeds;
they point out "the use of highly plastic hybrids".
Meanwhile,
Cristina Kirchner
stressed that "the profitability of the field is the highest of the century" and is explained "by
rising international prices, devaluation, internal costs in backward dollars and low withholdings"
, according to a note by Alfredo Zaiat published in Página / 12, which the vice president retweeted.
And an unmissable conclusion from Zaiat: "For those economic actors it is unbearable for their beautiful souls that the best years of business in the field coincide with governments that they detest."
- Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) July 18, 2021
He did so in a provocative tone towards agricultural producers, because he highlighted as "an unmissable conclusion" at the end of that journalistic text: "For those economic actors it is
unbearable for their beautiful souls
that the best years of business in the field coincide with
governments that they hate,
”said Zaiat, and Cristina added her
fervor for antagonisms
.
And the most disturbing thing is that in that note entitled
"Fabulous earnings of corn, soybean and sunflower producers
in the province of Buenos Aires" it was stated that not increasing withholdings has negative effects. Zaiat's argumentative basis is that this year the gross margin of the corn crop is US $ 620 per hectare, well above what
INTA Pergamino
reported
in May:
US $ 425
per hectare. In any case, these numbers are higher than the net margins, which effectively remain in the hands of the producers after covering costs, expenses and payment of taxes.
It should be noted that this
gross margin
of
US $ 620
is calculated on the best lands, which represent 20% of the total. The producers that produce in their own field are only 30%. Then, 70% of the producers must deduct the rent of the land, with which the real gross margins that most of the producers handle are not US $ 620 per hectare but rather less, in the order of
US $ 190
.
These are figures managed by the Ministry of Agriculture itself, whose officials have also reported this month eloquent numbers on the
working capital that "buries" the field every year
. They calculated that it is in the order of
US $ 26,450 million only between fine and coarse grain crops
. It is enough to compare with the pleasantries that are rendered to investors of much lower values, to measure the elusive recognition towards the agricultural producers.
In meetings with Maizar the Buenos Aires Cereal Exchanges, and the Córdoba and Rosario Trade Exchanges, the Argentine Cooperatives Association (ACA) and the Argentine Seed Growers Association (ASA), the ministry also highlighted the
best relationship of the last 20 years in terms of area sown with grasses with respect to legumes
. This also implies greater investments, due to the
greater use of fertilizers
by cereals compared to soybeans (which are fed "from the air").
In another positive weighting on the work of farmers, from the specific portfolio of the activity, they praised the
best agronomic management
.
They understand that not everything is the work of the land or international prices
.
"The growing sowing of late corn accounts for the improvements in management technologies that producers have been incorporating in recent years," they highlighted.
The crack is, among other things, a mechanism to look at reality as best suits each one.
And in the midst of an electoral scenario like the one we are already going through, it is expected that they will seek to accommodate everything, even mathematics, to private interests.
But even in this context, it is still striking that members of the same government speak of the same thing with practically opposite views.
Shouldn't they have a coherent proposal?
Obviously, they must be construed as targeting different audiences.
Some seek to stimulate those who produce, at least they recognize their achievements;
others try to place them as
guilty of the economic crisis that, strictly speaking, is the responsibility of governments.
With good economic logic, Zaiat assumes that "the dependence on commercial dollars exclusively from primary export activity is a powerful restriction for the relative autonomy of economic policy."
But
that merit of the Argentine agribusiness, unfortunately exclusive, is posited as a source of punishment
, when it postulates that "not increasing withholdings has negative effects": from "the lower collection to strengthen
economic growth via public spending
" to "the rate inflation due to the full absorption of the value of grains in the price of food ”.
What Zaiat does not describe is that
grain prices are already decoupled.
The State captures 70% of its international value.
And inflation is the result of the higher proportion of pesos over hard currencies.
This is evidenced by what happens in other grain-exporting countries, such as Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which do not suffer from the
galloping decline in purchasing power of the population that is so disturbing in Argentina, on both sides of the rift
.
Thus, it is likely that until election day there will be many more free interpretations.
With
numbers in sight, the result of concrete economic facts, not stories
, it is less likely that half-truths do more harm than lies.
Look also
Cristina Kirchner praised a journalistic note that recommends raising withholdings
An Agriculture official assured that "withholdings should be applied to those productions that are much more efficient"
