MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

30 years on Argentine wool man returns to Falklands

Jack Allolio photographed at Estancia El Salvador Tierra Del Fuego

VETERAN Argentine wool-man Joaquin (Jack) B Allolio (71) whose Falklands/Argentine agricultural trade ambitions were interrupted by a war, is to achieve his dream of returning to the Falkland Islands after thirty years.

In 1981 Jack was Manager of Caminos & CIA S.A. a new wool exporting company wholly owned by Río Gallegos farmers. Jack convinced his principals that, “…it would be an interesting initiative to visit the Islands in search of trade. This would involve selling sheep genetics and eventually live rams, as well as general supplies and at the same time buy up some of the Islands’ produce, like sheep and lambs for slaughter in Tierra del Fuego and eventually sheepskins and even wool to be processed in Argentina.”

He said, “I always liked geography, history and maps, so it was natural that during the years I took a particular interest on those far away islands and like any schoolboy in Argentina, I was taught about the islands and the entire situation entailed.”

Jack’s trading initiative was, “At the time wholly supported by Colin Smith from Knaresborough in Yorkshire, who was our wool agent in the UK, and part owner of San Carlos.”

Thus, at the end of May 1981 he made the journey to Comodoro Rivadavia and flew to the Falklands to be received by the Secretary of the Sheep Owners Association Jim Clement.

“My first evening in Stanley was socially quite pleasant, meeting most important local people at the Colony Club, during a cocktail celebrating Terry Spruce´s anniversary. At the Upland Goose Hotel I met Governor Rex Hunt and the General Manager of the Falkland Islands Company (FIC). The next day Richard Cockwell took me to the floating store of the FIC to inspect some sheepskins, which I later bought up and were then shipped first to B.A. and onwards to a final destination in Mazamet, in Southern France.”

Jack joked that when his comment, that he had been served “solid British food” at the Upland Goose was passed around the Islands and taken as a slight, it had the consequence of him being served a filet of veal for dinner on arrival at his next destination of San Carlos.

During his visit he was able to meet with a great number of Falklands Farmers and he left with the aim of eventually buying live sheep and lambs

He told Mercopress, “An unidentified important farmer, whom I believe to be from the West, commented to Colin Smith about my visit that I was, ‘quite competent for being an Argie.”

Unfortunately for the future of Falklands/Argentine agricultural relations the 1982 invasion interrupted. Jack said, “The conflict was a big disappointment for me, because all of our personal and commercial efforts went down the drain.

“In the subsequent years I kept in contact with a few growers, and little by little kept building up personal connections and trying to be useful with technical and breeding information.

“I am a regular reader of the Falkland Islands Government Department of Agriculture’s (DoA) technical magazine The Wool Press and in this coming November issue they will publish an article I wrote for them about the recent World Meat Congress which took place here in Buenos Aires.

“My contact with the Australian and British officials of the DOA has grown closer in the recent time simply because now they know I have access to a lot of technical information on wool, sheep and lambs.

“The other way round, recently I translated into Spanish an interesting article on sheep genetics, with permission from The Wool Press.”

“Some years ago I was in touch with Mr John Fowler when he was in charge of Tourism and more recently with the late Ms Jane Cameron regarding a book she had been writing together with Mrs Joan Spruce. Thus, despite my obvious main professional interest in wool, sheep, farming and management plus genetics, I have a genuine visitor´s interest in the Islands, first of all their people, and second their geography and history.

“It would be naive to tell you I have neutral feelings about the Islands, but all this time after a stupid conflict I understand that pilots from both sides have met, even with those who shot them down. I also had the opportunity two years ago to give advice to a small group of Argentine veterans, former infantry foot soldiers, who later had the chance to enjoy drinks with British veterans in a pub in Stanley.

“My mother was Argentine, my father German, and I was born in Rivera, Uruguay. I am a real Mercosur product with mixed origins; an Italian family name and direct German and Argentine ancestors. I believe my grandson (who I gifted with a German passport) should become a citizen of the world, if possible speaking Spanish, English, German, French and Italian as I do. There’s no need for flag waving as far as I am concerned.”

Jack’s initial dream was to return to the Islands to purchase greasy wool to be processed in Argentina and then exported as wool tops, grown in the Falklands processed in Patagonia (in one of Trelew´s combing mills) and then shipped abroad to world markets.

“My dream now is much more limited, just meeting people, enjoying their genuine hospitality, and offering useful information, as I do with my articles here and in Chile for the farming magazines.”

Jack will next week be speaking in Mercedes (Corrientes) in the North of Argentina, as part of a panel of specialists from Uruguay and Brazil, on the subject of Present Prospects for Wool and Lambs, for an audience of growers during the Expo Ovina which begins on November 10.

Jack will visit the Falklands at the end of January next year.

By Lisa Watson – SeAledPR - Stanley