MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lawmaker criticized that Argentine national team travels to Qatar with Uruguayan yerba mate

Pastori would have preferred a national brand

Argentine opposition Congressman Luis Mario Pastori of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), a party forming the Together for Change (Juntos por el Cambio - JxC) coalition, Tuesday noted on social media that the Argentine national football team taking part in the upcoming World Cup finals in Qatar had not prioritized home-made products.

Pastori detected through the mere observation of pictures published on Instagram by the Argentine Football Association (AFA) that a foreign brand of yerba mate had been chosen over those manufactured locally, thus sparking a controversy.

Insólito e inexplicable. Existen decenas de marcas de muy buena yerba mate en la Argentina producidas en Misiones y en Corrientes. Sin embargo, la Selección lleva a Qatar una marca uruguaya. ¿Hay alguna explicación oficial? Es casi una provocación. pic.twitter.com/mxlQXUXtBt

— Luis Mario Pastori (@luispastori) November 7, 2022

The Uruguayan yerba mate brand Canarias is produced in Brazil, in the States of Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Rio Grande Do Sul. It is then packed in Uruguay. “Any official explanation?” tweeted Pastori, who would have preferred a boost to the national industry.

“Unusual and inexplicable. There are dozens of brands of very good yerba mate in Argentina produced in Misiones and Corrientes. However, the National Team is taking an Uruguayan brand to Qatar. Is there any official explanation? It is almost a provocation,” Pastori underlined.

“Of course, it is nothing against the national team, of which I am a fan like anyone else. It is about defending a product of the region,” he added.

“Yerba Canarias is produced in the south of Brazil and it is packaged in Uruguay. It is not difficult to understand, isn't it,” he also pointed out despite no official objections from yerba mate producers.

Mate is a traditional South American caffeine-rich infused beverage made by soaking dried leaves of the yerba (literally “herb”) mate (Ilex paraguariensis) in hot water and consumed through a drinking straw. It is the national beverage of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay and is also consumed in the Bolivian Chaco, Northern and Southern Chile, southern Brazil, Syria (the largest importer in the world), and Lebanon.