Farmers are optimistic about the business climate and call for re-election of Macri

Luis Dillon, who along with his partner Santiago Gutiérrez manages 38 agricultural companies throughout the country, two years ago he heard from his clients and potential foreign partners the following message: "We are never going to put a peso in Argentina". Now, on the other hand, those same clients ask: "Bring projects".


That the climate of business prospects continues to be good in the field was again evident in CREA Tech, the technology congress organized in this city by the Argentine Association of Regional Consortia of Agricultural Experimentation (CREA) until last weekend .

The effects of the removal of the obstacles to export, the liberalization of trade and the reduction of retentions continue to mark the mood of the producers. Likewise, they do not hide the concern about the climatic contingencies, they emphasize that the tax pressure is still high (in soybeans retentions are maintained at 30%) and that higher costs generally influence companies.


Clearer the economic horizon, in the corridors of CREA Tech, in the interval of each block of lectures, also talked about politics. And from these talks appeared, gravitating, the desire of many producers and field consultants in the wet pampas that the Mauricio Macri government may have a second term in 2019.

"We believed that this could be one-term, but we begin to see that we can talk about the long term. The prospects of the elections mark that," Gutiérrez said. He remarked that there is a climate "to start projecting in the medium and long term," and that in that context analyzes the possibility of doing livestock business in Salta.


At his side, Dillon gives strength to the concept of Gutierrez. "There is continuity and we are in a normal country. Being competitive depends on us," he said. He then clarified, however, that "the context in general is difficult, because the tax pressure and costs are high." Dillon pointed out that, anyway, "there are tools to work on business continuity" of the field.

As business managers, Dillon and Gutierrez underscored that more staff are being invested today. "We came from years of frozen equipment and today we are recovering the agenda, investing in training and tools for people," Dillon said.

Ramiro Chiesino is a producer of General Belgrano, Buenos Aires. He is concerned both with the ups and downs of the weather and prices. But at the moment of speaking of the Government sums up: "I believe in his attitude, he has a positive attitude."

"I think so," he replied to the inquiry about whether the Macri administration could aspire to a second term. "He is firm and determined in what he does, although there are resistance from those who lived from politics before and the effort of others," he said.

Ignacio Roca went to the CREA Tech congress from Villa Mercedes, San Luis. It speaks of 2019 and also of the reality of its province, where the Rodríguez Saá come from losing in the PASO of August. "The change I see even in my province, people are not fooled," he said. Then he threw a flower at the national government. "I think he needs the second term so that the ideas he carries forward can be affirmed and better understood. If they do things well, populism does not return," he said. Roca is planning to invest in irrigation after years of thinking about doing it, but without specifying it. "I want to start slowly, invest without fear," said the producer.

Generally, producers believe that the things the government is doing are in the background and that they are doing well. Although they point out that many of them take time.

"I think that this stage of changes that Argentina needs takes more than four years. As we are today, it seems to me that the same political sign has to do so, although in the future I would love that continuity policies are not only a party, "said producer Marcelo Carrique.

Like other producers, Carrique agreed that "the climate" of business is good. But he stressed that, among other things, the tax structure and institutional aspects of the State should be improved.

"There is the uncertainty of the past and the economy has stabilized," said Marcos Mizzau, of an input firm of Jesús María. "There are prospects for the future, I see the producers with more demand and the replacement of machinery.

From Aacrea, its president, Francisco Lugano, stated that for the new agricultural campaign there are on the horizon some "yellow lights", specifically for the climate. And speaking of the Government, he opined: "The policy that is implementing gives more predictability." In this context, he added that from Aacrea they will "continue raising the rod so that the agricultural companies progress".