MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Interior Minister, Israel's President discuss agriculture's potential

“With the resources that Israel has and the resources that Argentina has, if we cooperate we can feed the world,” Herzog told De Pedro

Argentina's Interior Minister Wado De Pedro and Israeli President Issac Herzog discussed agriculture in the South American country and its possible “cooperation to feed the world,” it was reported.

De Pedro's tour last week with an entourage of several provincial governors seized the opportunity to take a glimpse of local productive conditions. However, details of the meeting were held back for a while, since Israeli authorities were focused on Holocaust Remembrance Day activities.

Three days later, when the Argentine delegation was already back in Buenos Aires and the governors were about to return to their provinces, Israeli officials issued a carefully-penned communiqué, which focused mainly on cooperation for production, especially in the agricultural sector.

“Argentina has two million hectares in production under irrigation systems, with a projection that can extend this surface to 6 million,” De Pedro told Herzog, who in return highlighted the historical ties “between the two countries.”

The two officials also agreed both countries have complementary economies. “With the resources that Israel has and the resources that Argentina has, if we cooperate we can feed the world,” Herzog was quoted as saying.

In addition to De Pedro, the meeting was attended by Ministers Daniel Filmus (Science); Julián Domínguez (Agriculture) and Governors Raúl Jalil (Catamarca), Gustavo Bordet (Entre Ríos), Gildo Insfrán (Formosa), Rodolfo Suárez (Mendoza), Arabela Carreras (Río Negro); Sergio Uñac (San Juan), and Alicia Kirchner (Santa Cruz) aas well as several provincial officials, together with Mario Montoto, Chairman of the Argentine-Israeli Chamber of Commerce (CCAI).

They all held productive bilateral meetings with officials from different areas of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's government, including technical visits to irrigation plants, water desalination, and water resource optimization processes of the main water management companies for production and human consumption, as well as to the main scientific and technological centers of the country.

They also discussed an agreement signed between the Weizmann Institute of Science, where Filmus took part, as well as an “agreement on the export of meat to Israel.”

The delegation also visited the Holocaust Museum, on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance and Heroism Day in Israel, where the representatives of both countries expressed their views on the two attacks that took place in Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994, which Argentine society still mourns to this day.