Farmers seek to avoid strikes

Small Farmers Federation (FAA) leader Eduardo Buzzi yesterday warned of the possibility that the government might intervene in the agrarian sector through a National Grains Board, following the farmers’ Liaison Board announcement on Sunday that it could suspend the sale of soy for an “indefinite time” as a protest measure.

“A National Grains Board in the hands of Kirchnerism would be dangerous,” Buzzi affirmed, clarifying: “We are not asking for devaluation because that would result in an inflationary problem, but that other issues be revised, including the high level of retentions, competitiveness, regional economies, climate energy and the dairy crisis.”

Buzzi described the government as “inept and arrogant” and called for the “blurry” agriculture minister, Norberto Yauhar, to “accept meeting with the four entities” that compose the Liaison Board.

Rural Society leader Luis Miguel Etchevehere also considered that a potential National Grains Board “would be a failure,” and revealed the Liaison Board is contemplating requests by farmers to engage in new strong-armed protest measures in “late March,” which could include the paralyzation of soy sales. He added that Yauhar had not met with them “for 13 months,” and did not rule out joining anti-government CGT and CTA umbrella union grouping leaders Hugo Moyano and Pablo Micheli’s March 14 protest.

FAA Entre Ríos leader Alfredo de Angeli affirmed soy could cease to be sold from April, asserting: “Farmers believe what they collect with the harvest will not be enough, and that is why they are organizing a strike in early April.”

Former Argentine Rural Confederations leader Mario Llambías warned yesterday the “government lacks money, it is desperate,” but “it will not find it in the agrarian sector if it does not implement just policies.”

Herald with DyN, Ambito.com