At the end of the first week of harvest cessation, herbal producers from San Pedro, in Misiones, carried out
a demonstration this Friday
to demand a 100% recovery in the value of the green leaf they deliver to the industries.
About a hundred tractors gathered very early on National Route 14 and then marched through the main avenues in a noisy caravan.
The farmers maintain that
the 240 pesos that the dryers are paying do not cover their numbers
after the sharp increase in fuel and the inflationary jump that generated the devaluation last December.
The herbalists have been mobilized for more than ten days
.
The claims began in small assemblies in the San Pedro area, and quickly grew from WhatsApp groups until they became massive.
Under the slogan of “don't give away your effort, join the fight for what is yours,” the herbal producers began to mobilize their tractors very early on.
The first were stationed at dawn on the side of National Route 14, at the access to San Pedro, and others joined as the hours passed until there were more than 100 machines, some more than half a century old.
The herbalists made it clear that they were not going to cut off the route nor did they want to cause complications for the rest of society.
That is why at mid-morning they started the tractors and about 30 trucks to march through the main avenues of San Pedro carrying Argentine and provincial flags.
Some banners asked for “Fair Price, 505 pesos” or “60 cents for the green leaf now.”
One of the protesters maintained that with the protest on the side of the road they were seeking to put pressure on the millers to transfer part of the value that the package of yerba mate has on the shelf to the primary sector.
Ariel Steffen, one of the herbalists' leaders, said that “we are holding a peaceful demonstration, without a road block, a 'walk' with the tractors;
asking for a fair price other than 505 pesos, cash price for our weed.
That is what we ask for as producers and we are not going to give up.
“We will continue in the fight.”
Steffen ruled out that paying that amount to the herbalists for the raw material could increase the price of the package on the shelf even more.
The average value of a kilo of weed in supermarkets does not drop below 3,000 pesos.
The yerbatero sector comes from a 2023 that closed with record sales in the domestic market and exports that were maintained
.
In total, 325 million kilos were sold, with a year-on-year increase of 4.38 percent;
But producers suffered from meteorological contingencies and ended the 2023 harvest with 55 million fewer kilos, which is equivalent to a 6.75% drop in raw material production.
The yerba mate sector is going through difficult times after the National Government removed from the National Institute of Yerba Mate (INYM) the power to set reference values for green leaf and yerba mate.
Although this measure has a precautionary measure, some maintain that the presidential decree remains in force.
In addition, the Nation must appoint the new president of the organization, who has been headless since the beginning of December, when Juan José Szychowski resigned to take office as provincial legislator.