MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: First ever Rural Society strike

The Argentine Rural Society announced yesterday that it is joining the week-long lockout that begins midnight tonight that has been called by two of the country's major farming organizations.

Rural Society President Luciano Miguens said at a press conference yesterday that "the erratic measures we have had to put up with for over a year destroy markets and farming jobs and paralyze investment decisions."

The farm leader added that "the sector has had a bad year" because it has not been able to take advantage of the opportunities made available by the favourable international context.

This is the first time in its 140-year history that the Argentine Rural Society calls on its members to join a strike. There was a lukewarm backing of a strike measure in the 90s but the organization left it up to individual members if they joined the protest measure or not.

Miguens added that "the arbitrary jerking around with the markets, added to the lack of clear and permanent game rules create a huge amount of legal insecurity in the sector that makes contributions to the development of the country unpredictable."

Miguens also lashed out at the government for intervening in the Liniers wholesale market and said that "the government would have done better if it had ensured that the price agreements on 12 basic beef cuts was kept."

Miguens emphasized that "the Rural has not been in favour of or addicted to these types of measures, but on this occasion we have to make the sector's concerns public," going on to state "losses are being posted despite the good international prices."

The farm leader said that despite the measure, originally called by the Argentine Rural Confederation and the Agrarian Federation, there will be no "shortage of beef because packing plants have sufficient stocks in their fridges." However, he admitted that prices could rise once the lockout begins.

Miguens said that there had been numerous meetings with government officials in recent days in an attempt to discuss the issues affecting the sector but these had produced no results.

Over the last four years a number of measures have been passed by the government that have been severely criticized by the farm sector. The first of these was taken shortly after the economic meltdown in 2002 when it was decided to tax exports at rates of up to 20 percent.

Further measures were taken this year when the government startled world markets with its total ban on beef exports. Although this measure was eased later in the year, some restrictions remained in place and the government threatened this week to again increase restrictions on exports to ease perceived rises in domestic beef prices.

Beef markets were not the only ones that suffered some form of government intervention as wheat and maize exports have also been affected by similar restrictions on exports.

Although the government announced a number of measures on Wednesday, such as lowering the slaughter weight of heifers, in attempt to offset the protest, these appear to have had little effect.

Yesterday President Néstor Kirchner, Economy Minister Felisa Miceli and Domestic Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno met to discuss a new export scheme for wheat and corn, although the meeting ended without any announcements from Government House. Buenos Aires Herald