This was reported by the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP), Fernando Mattos, that, in recent months, he has had to give more bad news than good news. In this way, during the current harvest, barely one million tons of soybeanscompared to the three million obtained a year ago.
This not only directly impacts the local economy and in the agricultural sector, particularly, but it will also visibly affect the export earnings to the country that, during 2022, reached record numbers.
Although the rains generated “a slightly better outlook,” Mattos specified that there were no noticeable improvements in the southern part of the country or in the core area of agriculture: Rio Negro, Soriano, Colonia and areas of Saint Joseph and Flowers. This implies that, although the water contributed to envision a way out of the situation of water deficit in the country, for some productive agricultural sectors the relief came too late.
In this sense, the head of the MGAP pointed out “a very significant loss in corn and very important in soybeans” as a reality with which Uruguay will have to live this year.
The soy scenario is particularly bleak: the main export item of agriculture and the second in general in goods placed abroad will have a drop in income that no one dares to quantify yet.
In 2022, this item contributed 1,992 million dollars of the 13,556 million entered, according to data from Uruguay XXI.
Plan de Fardos, the next step of the government
Despite the fact that it rained and an incipient recovery of the pastures is perceived, for Mattos a “complex winter” and for this reason another goal set is to establish a “bale plan”, which considers the purchase of bales of corn to supply, under advantageous conditions, producers with less than 500 hectares with problems of supply of food from the natural field; but he also considers taking advantage of the straw resulting from the rice harvest, which is in full swing.
Regarding fiscal measures, the minister admitted that various proposals are being studied by the MGAP and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF)such as eventual tax credits such as certificates for other uses, and also the incremental investment tool.
“Different proposals are being evaluated, the last word belongs to the Economy, which has to take care of public accounts, there is a significant effort from the government in a battery of more than 30 measures”, stressed Mattos, a battery that will be quantified later, considering credits with subsidies from the Emergency Agricultural Fund that registered more than 5,000 annotated and already more than 2,000 vouchers taken; tax exemptions; rate discounts such as the recent announcement of discounts for the cost of electricity in the dairy sector; and loans with subsidies through BROU Microfinance for more than 30 million dollars, according to estimates by the head of the MGAP together with the president of the bank, Salvador Ferrer.
Source: Ambito
