MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Farmers to meet next Monday with Argentina’s new Agriculture minister

Julian Dominguez must convince farmers to plant more corn and wheat

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner took the oath on Thursday to lawmaker Julian Dominguez at the helm of the newly created cabinet post of Minister of Agriculture, Fishing and Livestock, one of the more conflicting areas of her administration.

Dominguez first announcement was that next Monday he will be receiving the farmers’ liaison committee that has been at the head of the long running conflict with the administration of Mrs. Kirchner.

“They requested a meeting for Monday, so Monday we meet”, said Dominguez.

At the oath ceremony were present Eduardo Buzzi, Mario Llambias, Carlos Garetto and Hugo Biolcatti, who make up the liaison farmers’ commission. They were specially invited by Government House Secretary Oscar Parrilli, which was seen as a good will gesture, since that was not the case with previous agriculture officials.

Dominguez, 46, vice president of the lower house in the Buenos Aires province legislature since 2007 replaced Agriculture Secretariat Carlos Cheppi as top agriculture official in one of the breadbasket countries of the world.

The creation of the ministry comes after more than a long period of strained relations between the Kirchner couple’s government and farmers. Mrs. Kirchner’s plan last year to raise export taxes on grains and oilseeds prompted four months of protests, road blockades and food shortages in South America’s second-biggest economy.

“Hopefully, this minister will arrive with an open mind” said Ricardo Buryaile, vice president of the Argentine Rural Confederation, in an interview on C5N television channel. “There was absolutely no dialogue taking place now”.

Argentina has not had a ministry of Agriculture since 1981, when it was dissolved during the last military dictatorship as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. Ministries in Argentina are created and dissolved periodically.

The liaison committee admitted the significance of the revaluation of the Agriculture post but conditioned their support to the independence it effectively shows particularly from two government offices, dependent on the whims of Nestor Kirchner, and which control prices and export quotas, distorting values and the workings of markets.

Between 1995 and 1999, Dominguez was mayor of Chacabuco, a city of 45,000 residents located in northern Buenos Aires province, within the Argentine grain belt. The Agricultural Ministry will be his first government job related to farming.

Argentina is the world’s biggest soybean-oil exporter and the second biggest for corn after the US It’s the top beef producer after Brazil, China and the US

Dominguez has held government jobs since 1990, at both the national and provincial levels. He was the public works minister in Buenos Aires province from 1999 to 2002, presidential Cabinet secretary in 2003 and military affairs secretary in 2003.

The Agriculture Secretariat had been a part of the Production Ministry headed by Debora Giorgi.

Earlier in the week Mrs. Kirchner’s administration sent what was interpreted as positive signals when it lifted a ban on overseas shipments of corn and wheat. However the removal of restrictions will apply to exporters who commit to supplying the domestic market to help meet targets set by the government, Argentina’s export controls office said in a statement.

The agency, known as Oncca, said the target for domestic wheat supply in the current season was set at 6.5 million metric tons and for corn at 8 million tons.

Argentina is planting its smallest corn crop in two decades and wheat sowing plunged to 2.75 million hectares from 4.6 million after the ban discouraged planting, according to data from the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange.