Argentine farm leader blasts Goverment on slow reforms

BUENOS AIRES – Investors would love to jump into Argentina’s farm sector as it pushes to meet rising world food demand, but the government has resisted reforms needed to improve confidence, the new head of the country’s top farm chamber said.

Grain powerhouse Argentina is the world’s No 2 corn and No 3 soybean exporter. Yet the Argentine Rural Society, or SRA, which represents the country’s biggest farmers, has not met with the agriculture minister since the drought-hit days of January.Now the problem blighting the Pampas is an overabundance of rain that has bogged down Southern Hemisphere spring planting.The SRA’s calls for an emergency meeting between the farm sector and the government to address the effects of three months of violent storms are going unanswered, according to Luis Miguel Etchevehere, who became president of the chamber last month.Consumer nations are counting on South American breadbaskets Argentina and Brazil to help make up for shortfalls caused by dry crop weather in Russia and the United States. Low stocks have squeezed Chicago soy prices 28% higher this year while corn has surged 15% and wheat 34%.In order to step in with supplies needed to help the world avoid another food crisis in the years ahead, Etchevehere said Argentina has to ditch its corn and wheat export curbs and phase out the 35 % tax the government puts on soybean shipments.Such changes, he said, would improve profits and provide the incentive needed to increase farm investment.’Our job is to find solutions by way of dialogue with the government. Unfortunately, they do not take our calls,’ Etchevehere told Reuters in an interview.’We have asked for a meeting about the flooding, but we cannot get one,’ Etchevehere said. ‘We do not understand the logic of this. We represent a major export sector that simply needs clear rules and predictable policies in order to recuperate investor confidence and to meet our potential.’An Agriculture Ministry spokesman said the problem is one of format, with government officials offering to meet with one farm organization at a time and the SRA insisting on a joint meeting including the various chambers that represent Argentine growers.The only thing for sure is that no reform breakthroughs are expected anytime soon. Unlike the SRA, which is Argentina’s most conservative farm group, some growers welcomed modifications in the government’s export policy over the last year that were aimed at increasing competition among corn and wheat buyers.Investors have taken a dim view of Argentina since its 2002 sovereign debt default. The country’s already low credit rating was pushed further into junk bond territory this week when Standard & Poor’s made another downgrade. – Nampa-Reuters