Yerbate growers paralyze the summer harvest

This Monday the zafriña (summer harvest) strike begins yerba mate for four months (from December 2 to March 31, 2025), promoted by around 200 producers in the province demanding 450 pesos per kilo of green leaf and the regularization of the National Institute of Yerba Mate (Inym)deregulated by the Necessity and Urgent Decree 70/23 of the National Government. This measure of force will affect thousands of families of tareferos, who will be left without work and, therefore, without income.

After the deregulation of the Inym, not only the herbal producer was affected, who must deliver the green leaf to dryers for amounts ranging between $170 and $230 and with payments with post-dated checks between 30 and 60 days, but also reflects the structural inequality between the different links in the productive chain, with the tareferos being the most affected.

“Today, tareferos depend mostly on decisions external to their sector and on state assistance, which does not solve their underlying problems and affects their dignity because what they receive is equivalent to an indigence subsidy,” pointed out a group of yerba mate producers based in the town of Comandante Andresito, the main producer of yerba mate in the country.

The stoppage of the activity was resolved in a meeting held on November 22 in the town of Andresito, in which some 200 yerba mate producers participated as a strategy that would aim to unbalance the supply in gondola, forcing the mills to pay a higher price per leaf to producers.

“The families of herbal workers are in a situation of chronic poverty due to the pittance we are paid per kilo of green leaf”; said the producer Carlos Bork by Andresito.

MAM accession

He Misiones Agrarian Movement (MAM) reported that it adheres to the stoppage of the yerba mate harvest in the summer, known as “zafriña”, which is usually carried out between the months of December and March, in demand of decent prices and restitution to the National Institute of Yerba Mate (INYM). ) of his full powers.

“The measure was resolved as a manifestation of the discomfort of yerba mate producing families in the face of the very serious situation that the sector is going through in the province of Misiones,” the organization expressed in a statement.

Last Friday, a new herbal assembly took place in the town of Comandante Andresito, with the participation of more than 150 settlers from different parts of the province. There, the pressing problems experienced as a consequence of the fall in prices and the deregulation of the market ordered by the national government through DNU 70/23 were analyzed.

From the MAM they highlighted: “Reality shows that, one year after the beginning of the neoliberal government of Javier Milei and La Libertad Avanza, the only beneficiaries are the large companies that monopolize the activity, which are paying half of what the weed was worth. mate last year.”

In that sense, they warned that “the outlook is critical and unsustainable,” since the settlers cannot even cover the costs of production, which is especially felt among the tareferos, the last link in the chain.

“We express our full support for the forceful measures democratically ordered by the farming families that represent the different herbal areas of Misiones and we join the campaign to raise visibility and awareness of the situation. We call to maintain unity in the struggle and continue to be mobilized in the defense of our mother product and all the rights acquired in favor of family farming,” they emphasized in the document.