Luis Etchevehere, Minister of Agribusiness: "This is the most severe drought that affects the Argentine countryside"
The month of February ignited the alert of the Stock Exchange of Commerce of Rosario, one of the most productive zones of the country, that described the situation of "without precedents", due to the drought that affects to 80% of the Argentine field.
The lack of rainfall has caused a drop in the flow of rivers and irreparable damage to crops, with their respective economic consequences for farmers.
The Minister of Agroindustry, Luis Etchevehere, declared: “We are sure that there will be less economic activity in thousands of towns in Argentina that depend on the agro-industrial activity for their trade, workshops, service stations, hotels, places where the boys who work with transport go. and drive millions on trips“. However, the authority warned that since Argentina is a price setter in the international market there is a "compensation", since there is less production, there will be better prices.
March is expected to bring storms that will alleviate the situation. The behavior of the market in the coming weeks will also be key. For their part, the provinces would decree an emergency for state aid to arrive. In this line, the ministry brought together the Agricultural Risk Board, in order to implement multi-risk insurance and increase the fund of the Agricultural Emergency Law, which today is 500 million pesos, about USD 24.400.000, although He recognized that "the Emergency Law is not enough, but it is what it is," said the minister.
In the case of economic losses, the authorities do not dare to determine a number. "The ministry does a monitoring, there are projections and there is a reality that gets worse day by day as long as it does not rain“, Minister Etchevehere commented to Télam.
The drought is the main economic concern of the Casa Rosada. In Finance they maintain the growth projections for the country in an 3,5%, although the private consultants lowered their estimates to 0,5% and predicted losses of up to USD 4000 million due to the drought.
Minister Etchevehere stated in this regard that "Climate change is here to stay. Last year we saw the same fields that today are begging for a drop of water that had one meter of water” and added that phenomena of this type are becoming more frequent and more intense. “Great floods, great droughts, great losses"He said.
For his part, Eliseo Rovetto, coordinating secretary of the Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA), entity that brings together small producers, warned El País: "4.000 millions of dollars can be lost, although it is very easy to talk about numbers at this moment", He calculated.
"The big concern is that it is in the summer when it rains"Recognized the leader. "Some harvests can be saved, but the loss exceeds 80% of the crops, we will not reach the yields of other years and we are already in a disaster zone"He warned.
Source: Martín Carrillo O. - Blueberries Consulting
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