Farmers reprove new grains register: ‘We are not exporters, stockpiling traders’
In this file photo, the president of the Argentine Rural Society Luis Etchevehere delivers a speech as he kicks off the annual rural fair in Buenos Aires City.
Head of the Argentine Rural Society (SRA) Luis Etchevehere has questioned the creation of a grains register that increases government intervention in the agricultural market and accused the Kirchnerite administration of “punishing” production.
“The problem is not the control of sales but inflation,” Etchevehere told reporters today criticizing the newly created grains program that will work under the scope of the AFIP tax agency and forces all traders to be registered in order to sale their products.
Etchevehere explained the resolution targets traders and stockpiling agents but not producers who play by their own register. “The producer is forced to declare all the grains that were left from the previous and the new harvest because if not there is no stock registered in the AFIP and he can not move them. It becomes impossible to trade. This has not changed. We are different from exporters and stockpiling agents,” the SRA chief insisted.
In an interview with a radio station, the farming leader considered the AFIP already keeps “a perfect” control over the grains market in Argentina. “It is impossible to move a wheelbarrow of corn, wheat or soy without the AFIP becoming aware and that is ok,” he said and urged the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration to not “punish” farmers.
“If the government wants more production, it has to promote it not punish it,” Etchevehere added as he affirmed the relation between federal authorities and agricultural leaders is “nonexistent.” “We have learnt about the announcement today in the media because the government has not received us for the past five years.”
buenosairesherald.com