MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina prepares to confiscate wheat stocks to ensure bread supply at ‘normal prices’
Argentina Domestic Commerce Secretary, Guillermo Moreno has given mills and exporters until Friday to normalize the wheat market which has been under stress with bread prices doubling in the last month, and farmers’ complaining about the worst harvest in decades because of government policies. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesHeadline should read: Argentina prepares to confiscate wheat stocks to ensure that they can 'feed' the people this year.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 05:46 am - Link - Report abuse 0Also the 'aggressive' Domestic market secretary. Aggressive? WTF????
Maybe it loses something in translation. Does it mean the secretary is aggressive, the policy is aggressive or the domestic market is aggressive?
Either way, Argentina is screwed, farmers will be robbed yet again, and forced out of business.
Argentines better get used to tightening their belts, because there won't be much to eat this year. They'd better also pray that weather is mild because....Winter is coming....
Fly to Argentina and go to a restaurant ffs, you'll have more food than you can handle for a week.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 06:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0You do show promise as a cheap apocalpyse movie writer.
But the situation could improve next year, said the wheat farmers.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 07:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0- The President could get struck by lightening or swept away by a flood in the winter.
Command economies, you got to love em.
YankeeBoy said they like barley.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 08:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0@2 Tobias
Jul 05th, 2013 - 08:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0When you have to try and persuade people that there is food in the country, you know things are bad, and are only going to get worse.
Think of it this way. If Argentina has to use it's wheat and other food produce to feed the people of Argentina, then it has none to export, so therefore won't make any US dollars, and therefore won't be able to buy fuel to keep the lights on and the heating going, especially as fuel imports are increasing month on month.
You are a fool if you believe otherwise.
As I said...Winter is Coming...
Appears he lost his temper with journalists asking awkward questions at the US Embassy reception yesterday . The headline says it all .
Jul 05th, 2013 - 08:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.clarin.com/politica/Moreno-fascista_0_949705341.html
tick....tick..... :)
Jul 05th, 2013 - 09:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0LOL @ Argentina! The joke that keeps on giving!
Jul 05th, 2013 - 09:41 am - Link - Report abuse 0I told you this would happen...
Jul 05th, 2013 - 10:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0Next it will be seizure of the “unproductive” farms
Toby, Are you going to work on a Rg Farm Collective?
Bahahaha
Remember, All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
They need to take the wheat for more U$. But the food is getting thin. Some store shelves are getting bare so they over stock is with items they can get. It is not unusual to go down an isle of store that the entire isle is one product? Restaurants.....some you cannot even get a steak because they cannot afford to purchase it in advance to be able to later sell it on the menu.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 10:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0This act of thievery should go over well with the farmers. Let's see who is kirchner's enemies......teacher's, farmers, truck drivers, train operators. Am I missing anyone? Oh...yes......the few middleclass that are lucky to have a job. A friend lost a job their.........the max benefit for unemployment is 400 pesos a month. Only after you play their game as they do not have in the system and it takes months to get it.
I guess that if your earning-power fluctuates annually naturally, and then your profits from exports are artifically held down by government, you will tend to turn to your remaining stocks held for the domestic market to recoup some sort of better return. It seems these stocks are being held back to increase prices. Common practice; but it creates immediate food shortage in the households.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 10:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0The government are trying to tamper with the proxymal reason without addressing the ultimate reason.
The spiral of decline in food stock will inevitably increase .. though the natural 'good years' will be heralded by the Ministry and CFK as government success, and the natural 'bad years' will be castigated as the machinations of the evil farmers.
I find the stupidity of these Marxists fascinating!
Jul 05th, 2013 - 10:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0Simply fascinating.
Since it's existence Argentina has ALWAYS produced grains and beef for export.
Now through absolutely idiotic gov't policies they have a grain and beef shortage.
It is flabbergasting.
CFK=Mugabe
Has anyone in that gov't ever picked up a history or economics book? Ever?
CFK has also raided the national lottery, so I say they have reached the bottom of the barrel.
There is nothing left.
Argentina now owes more than during pre-2001 default! And they don't count all the judgements and the eventual payment of the holdouts.
It will take at least a generation to fix what the Ks stole in a decade, maybe 2.
What happens when all the car companies pull out? What will they be left with?
The Rgs will say oh that will never happen, well a year ago they told me they wouldn't be running out of wheat and farmers facing confiscations.
I will tell you right now the car mfgs will pull out soon enough. Close the doors and leave the country sending most of the working population of BA out on the streets.
Gads what a mess
As you said before Yankee, that is why they stole the trains.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 01:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Local papers report: “Although some market sources believe they have more wheat, exporters argue that there are no more than 350,000 tonnes to be sold in the domestic market.” 350,000 tonnes left,...is less than one month's supply.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 02:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The farmers reported last month they'd be out of wheat by Aug so that is right on the nose.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 02:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The farmers need to be tough and starve BA of food.
They'll win if they have the balls for it.
The farmers aren't starving anyone if they themselves, don't have the food.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 02:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0No I am saying stop all fresh food going into BA. EVERYTHING.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 02:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If BA starts to revolt CFK will be done.
Wow, didn't see this coming at ALL!
Jul 05th, 2013 - 02:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0[/sarcasm]
By the great leader, how great this sawdust tastes!
Yankeeboy has a very valid point, Argentina at one time in the not to distant past was a major supplier to the worlds food basket, there is absolutely no denying that!
Jul 05th, 2013 - 03:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So WTF has happened?
Like most on here I have no animosity towards the every day Argentinian, but I do wish they would get a grip. This woman and her kind are destroying their once great nation and they do not seem to care about it.
It's like a mass outbreak of apathy has descended on them, I just can not understand it, because on other issues they are such a passionate people.
I willl say it again, WTF has gone wrong???
@2 “go to a restaurant ffs” I don't think you go to a restaurant for that. However, that aside, have you found one that still has edible food? Fish, is it? Fish in soy sauce?
Jul 05th, 2013 - 03:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@4 Not to worry. I believe wheat is only modified grass.
@6 And questioned whether he is a psycopath! I thought that was taken for granted.
@12 Presumably CFK reckons that they have to reach a position where the only way is up. It seems strange to me that all CFK's “government” does is steal and the people let them get away with it. Certainly seems to support the notion that “they” put something in the food and water.
@17 I thought BA was revolting already!
They always claim the victim,
Jul 05th, 2013 - 06:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0its always everybody elses fault.
still
ya got ya bread-
all ya need now is a couple of fishes, and away ya go..
wooooow capn poppy, ptolemy, yankeeb. august. and unemployment here, a friend of mine w ho left a seasonal, non-degree needing job was getting $400 U.S. A WEEK!
Jul 05th, 2013 - 06:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Pistol Pete Moreno will meet his match one day soon, and the sooner the better.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 07:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 023. There is a reporter calling for Moreno's sanity to be tested.
Jul 05th, 2013 - 10:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But aren't all of CFK's minions as nutty as she is?
at least that is what Hillary Clinton wanted to know...
Argentina if you need wheat then we have plenty to sell.
Jul 06th, 2013 - 01:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0Australia's crop for the last financial year is estimated at 24 million tonnes. With the years preceding producing 22 and 30 million tonnes.
Not bad for only 23 million people that don't produce anything.
Sorry but COD only.
(11) GeoffWard2
Jul 06th, 2013 - 05:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0This ain’t nothing to do with no “evil farmers”, Geoff…….
As you well say,..... it is common practice for grain hoarders and tax evaders to hold stocks to increase prices….
A “Shakespearean” specialty, if you catch my drif……..
Anyhow……..
I recall stunts like this having been pulled against this administration before.
All resulting in resounding defeat for them hoarders, tax evaders and their “Assisting Press”
Not the most popular kind of persons around them hoarders and tax evaders ……..
But, of course, an informed South-American Commie as you is surely perfectly aware of all the above ;-)
Surely they are just being biblically careful; storing their food for the seven worse years to come.
Jul 06th, 2013 - 08:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0I remember my friends in the USSR did the same sort of thing .. nothing whatever to do with money; just a little careful book-keeping.
Probably CFK needs some of her harvest to send to Venezuela to stop them from going hungry. “We must all tighten our belts to save those like us, my people.”
And now they're trying to gain control of the flour mills...
Jul 06th, 2013 - 10:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.clarin.com/politica/presion-empresarios-trigo-llego-abastecimiento_0_950904973.html
Argentina is fecked alright.
Funny, how is it possible that you can be forced to sell your own property? One would think the Rgs live in a Police/Commie State.
Jul 06th, 2013 - 12:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Where does it stop?
Are you hoarding your children when they should be out working for the state?
Unproductive children mayhap?
I have not been there since Late Jan early Feb, but my friends tell me a dozen croissants cost more than a kilo of beef.
Jul 06th, 2013 - 02:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Looks like Gnocci won't just be served on the 29th any longer!
Jul 06th, 2013 - 02:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Haha
The farmers need to stop all food sales period.
Let BA starve until the gov't resigns.
It wouldn't take longer than a week
The farmers are armed better than the gendarmarie
They must be paying the upper echelon in the military well. Where they can't fight a war nor defend themselves, they can overthrow their government. Part of the corruption I suppose.
Jul 06th, 2013 - 02:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Nestor fired/retired most of the upper ranks a decade ago. They're disorganized and lazy. They may be able to control civil unrest only because how many tanks does it really take to control a crowd. Although who knows if they'd fire on their own people.
Jul 06th, 2013 - 02:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 033 yankeeboy
Jul 06th, 2013 - 03:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I am with you, I think they would be stupid to fire on their own people, especially as there is only 100,000 of them and only one can of cartridges!!
These people she is trying to “help” better wise up pretty quickly before they are pulling turnips.
Jul 06th, 2013 - 07:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Bread and croissants cost more than beef in Argentina......they aare pulling turnips. Those in the vests did nothing controlling costs.....lol I think tobi was one
Jul 07th, 2013 - 04:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0@36 Capt Poppy
Jul 07th, 2013 - 09:45 am - Link - Report abuse 0But CFK said that Argentines can live on 7 peso's a day! Surely this cannot be true?
I wonder how many food related diseases will crop up in Argentina, when the people cannot even afford the staples?
And if they can only afford beef, then I expect an increase in bowel cancer and heart disease, becaue red meat (like anything) is bad for you in excess.
35 yankeeboy
Jul 07th, 2013 - 12:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0After the wheat and barley are gone they will be eating millet, and that can make you blind. So situation normal for the Peronistas.
38. It might improve their driving though...
Jul 07th, 2013 - 01:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Funny not one of them has said Oh yeah I think I read this was going to happen a year ago, an insightful American on MP told me to buy commodities and stock up.
I'm still hoping for a 3 week cold snap, where the high isn't above 30F in BA. No fuel and H1N1 all over could be the collapse I have been patiently waiting for.
Lep almost 20 pesos for a loaf of bread.....lol beef a little less, when you can find it. Usually only in the major urban areas. And her big price patrols did nothing as expected. Food inflation is rampant. Most anything with flour in it is very expensive.
Jul 07th, 2013 - 02:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Let's see the groups she alienated:
Farmers
truck drivers
Bus drivers
rail workers
teachers
manufacturing (what's left of it)
working class
wealthy
Who is left, the poor? Is there that many poor in Argentina to win these elections?
In La Nacion they said bread now $20 is 900% more than in 2001!
Jul 07th, 2013 - 02:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry Think wages have not gone up 900% in 12 yrs.
I was trying to explain to someone what things cost in BA and I was telling them its like us paying U$310 for a Big Mac!
What! You're kidding
Nope
What an f'ed up place
yep
Chris #38
Jul 07th, 2013 - 02:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“... they will be eating millet, and that can make you blind.”
Millets have been important food staples in human history, particularly in Asia and Africa, and they have been in cultivation in East Asia for the last 10,000 years.
The Argentinians may well be going blind, but it will not be the millet that does it.
42 GeoffWard2
Jul 07th, 2013 - 04:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You ARE going to like this!
The statement about blindness was spoken by a destitute farmer in the Seven Samurai, the ‘original’ masterpiece directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1954 and restored for DVD by the bfi (British Film Institute).
I am fortunate to have a bfi copy and was watching it again just the other evening, so when this topic came up I couldn’t resist putting it in. Obviously I have no idea as to the veracity of the remark.
I wondered who would correct me, if needed!
Perhaps the millet in Japan back in the 1800’s was somewhat problematical. :o)
@40 “ Who is left, the poor? Is there that many poor in Argentina to win these elections?”
Jul 07th, 2013 - 07:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Not to win these elections, but they'll to better than in 2009, when they still got over 30% of the vote. And don't forget that the opposition is still mostly peronist. Even in the worst case scenario the peronists will get nearly 2/3 of congress, so whoever succeds CFK can do whatever they want as congress will just put the stamp on anything coming from whoever leads the Peronists. And I hope it's not Massa, because he's just like Kirchner.
You might say Argentina is a Communist country since the Peronists control everything just like the commies do in Cuba and North Korea and they screw things up just as well. Only here we don't pretend to be anti-system all the time.
true......I don;t know why peronism caught on like fire. His second time at bat was not so good for him.
Jul 07th, 2013 - 10:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@45 well my history teacher (peronist btw, so who know if it was the truth, but you get the idea) told me that thanks to Peron the regular people could get stuff like fridges, or radios, or cars, that only the rich could afford before, and he invested on education to teach the poor, industrialized the country, etc. Of course he did a lot of bad things (indoctrination, closing newspapers), but the people here only care about the good.
Jul 07th, 2013 - 11:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Most Argentinians do not want a Western democracy, just a return to the glory days of the 40s and 50s. They want a planned economy run by someone competent who keeps them fed and gives them toys. We definitely do NOT want to be like before Peron. Most people outside Argentina think everything was fine and dandy before Peron, but it wasn't. Everything was owned by the British, and all the money was kept by the elite, the vast mayority was poor, forced to work on land and getting paid with worthless paper that you could only use on the employer's store. In Argentina the period from 1870 to 1940 is regarded as the dark ages, not the glory days.
Whatever you Argentine's are happy with that works domestically and internationally, but it is not working now, but you know that. Kirchner is stealing the country blind and making Argentina a pariah.They need to shift from handouts to making opportunities and DFI is dead in Argentina. I wish you the best of luck in these coming elections.
Jul 07th, 2013 - 11:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Magnus, I think what has changed is THE WORLD.
Jul 08th, 2013 - 04:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0In the U.S. for instance, the LEAST wealthy fly and ugg about it.
Cuba, of course, just let it's middle class have electric.sandwich heaters this year.
If you want to move ahead the quickest, open up to everything life wants to.give you, yes- of free will.
@46 MagnusMaster
Jul 11th, 2013 - 09:49 am - Link - Report abuse 0We already know that Argentina lives in the past. In the 40's Argentina profited from World War II. Those days of war profiteering are long gone.
The world has moved on, but Argentina wants to stand still. It won't work, change is inevitable.
Argentina should be a world player and a top world economy. So why aren't you?
There are many factors, the most obvious one is the rampant corruption at every level of national and local government, that makes it expensive and risky for businesses to work there.
The second major factor is that Argentine people want something for nothing. They want everything without having to work for it, and then they feel aggrieved when they don't get it, and complain.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, someone somewhere eventually has to pay, but most Argentines believe that so long as it isn't them that has to pay, it's okay.
This is why Argentina can't borrow money. Your history it to borrow money then refuse to pay it back, whilst chuckling to yourselves on how you've managed to 'get' one over on someone else.
But it is now time to pay the piper. No money, no investment, no future.
Successive Argentine governments policies are set on taking Argentina back to the 19th century.
Your hospitals have no medicines, broken equipment and infrastructure, your railways are on their last legs, your roads are in dire need or repair, but the government would rather spend all of the taxpayers money flogging the dead horse that is the Falklands Issue.
You say that everything used to be owned by the British, by that you actually mean that the UK invested heavily in Argentina and gave you the very services that your own governments are now ignoring.
Face it, Peroism and the Argentine publics complicit acceptance of corruption will keep Argentina a third world country.
@49 “Face it, Peroism and the Argentine publics complicit acceptance of corruption will keep Argentina a third world country.”
Jul 11th, 2013 - 05:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes, so? I'm still not going to leave. After all, you don't want Latinos in your land unless you can keep them as cheap wage slaves.
50. You'd make more and have a much more secure and happy life path cleaning pools in the USA than you would being a “professional” in Argentina.
Jul 12th, 2013 - 10:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0Why do you think we have such a huge amount of illegal immigration from Central and South America?
Yes I'd make more but I'd be still be a sub-human. You think the days of “Barbarism vs civilization” are over? No, they merely turned into political correct euphemisms. It's now “first-world vs third-world”, but while the words change the meaning is still the same. The superior British and Americans are the perfect flawless ubermench and the inferior Latinos and Africans are the uncivilized, primitive indians, with bow and arrows. Even if I was civilized and with money I would still be a subhuman. The only way to progress with dignity is to evolve and help my fellow people evolve to be humans rather than subhuman.
Jul 12th, 2013 - 03:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Also, don't forget we Latinos aren't allowed into your nice paradise. Unless you have a million dollars it's impossible to get a visa for any first-world countries. I don't want to clean pools anyway.
If absolutely necessary I may cross the river to Uruguay but only temporarily. I'm not planning to move to any other country, since we aren't welcome with dignity.
#52 if you have skills you can get into the USA. No one thinks of latinos as sub human, it's the free loaders that are thought of as sub human.
Jul 12th, 2013 - 07:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Unfortunately, thanks to all the illegal inmigrants Latinos are acceptable targets. While skills help, it's still not enough to get a visa. If you can get a job offer from the USA you can get a work visa, but it lasts only a couple of years. IF I get a job in the USA I may live there for a few years but I'm not hoping to live there permantently.
Jul 12th, 2013 - 11:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I understand how are it is my wife is a Portena. Personally I am for more liberal immigration but with certain requirement. But that is me and there are many more like me. But yes, the illegals make legal immigration harder. The lottery is hard but did you try it?
Jul 13th, 2013 - 01:28 am - Link - Report abuse 0Next year will be toilet paper I advise business people in Argentina to start storing toilet paper!
Jul 13th, 2013 - 04:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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