The president of the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), Nicolás Pino, criticized the launch of the unified “agro-dollar” initiative for simplifying the price of agricultural commodity exports.
He believes the measure will generate exchange rate distortions and negatively impact government revenues.
In an interview with Radio Rivadavia, the SRA leader said that the “agro-dollar” is not the solution for Argentine agribusiness.
On the contrary, implementing the proposal is “merely a need for government revenue.”
“It will generate price distortions, as the ‘soybean-dollar’ did because when someone wants to intervene in the markets, it causes uncertainty and perplexity,” Pino said.
DROUGHT DAMAGE
In addition to contesting the “agro-dollar,” the SRA president estimates that the losses from the drought are expected to reach US$20 billion in all productive areas of Argentina.
For this reason, he demanded concrete and urgent measures from the government.
According to the Argentine government, the measure will consist of a 30-day differential exchange rate for the soybean complex (grain, meal, and oil) and a 90-day differential exchange rate for export goods from regional economies.
Massa and his team say this will occur to reinforce international reserves by US$15 billion.
“It’s a program to increase exports, aimed in some way at facilitating the ability and the fulfillment of contracts of our exporters in this year of drought, understanding the difficulties that our producers have suffered,” Massa said.
“The challenge is to promote this measure, strengthen reserves in the second quarter, and continue the stabilization path that Argentina must follow.”
“The drought has hit us very hard.”
With information from Revista Oeste