MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record visitors in Palermo livestock Show.

Argentina's main agricultural show in the heart of the country's capital, Buenos Aires' Palermo grounds established last Sunday a new record with 153,600 visitors totalling 884,000 in a week.

"We feel we must apologize to visitors but the truth is what happened this Sunday is far beyond our wildest expectations. In next year's edition we will improve access facilities so as to avoid having people queuing", said Hugo Biolcati of the Argentine Rural Association, SRA organizer of the show.

Sunday's program included several music and dance shows by some of the most famous Argentine artists and equestrian displays which were the main attraction for thousands of Buenos Aires residents.

However the Argentine farming community was more interested in listening to SRA president Luciano Miguens who was responsible for the annual speech addressed to government officials and which marks the beginning of the Palermo Show livestock sales. Mr. Miguens admitted that Argentine agriculture is undergoing a strong recovery but also demanded from the government a gradual reduction of levies on agricultural commodities exports. "You can keep milking the cow, but you must make sure she's properly fed", argued Mr. Miguens who claimed that when the administration talks of fiscal surplus "that money comes from the camp and there's no doubt at all that the current Argentine recovery has been speared by the farming community".

Argentine Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries minister Miguel Campos replied in his speech that "I can't do magic and eliminate overnight levies on farm exports, but I can anticipate that legitimate claims involving distortionate taxes will be gradually eliminated".

The first sales of the Show were Criollo horses with the Second best filly of Palermo reaching the equivalent of 11,000 US dollars and the Best adult Stallion, 9,500 US dollars. Sales will continue during the week with beef and dairy cattle, sheep, other horse breeds and hogs.