Argentinian truckers stoppage stops food exports

The strike of transporters of cereals and derivatives in Argentinawho demand for the fourth consecutive day better rates in the face of the rise in the price of gas oil (diesel), has paralyzed food exports, agricultural sources warned on Thursday.

“The entire agro-export complex is paralyzed. The Argentine economy cannot afford these luxuries”, Gustavo Idígoras, president of the Chamber of the Oil Industry and Cereal Exporters Center (Ciara-CEC), said in a statement.

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Thousands of trucks have stopped transiting or parked on the side of the roads in Argentina, the world’s largest exporter of soybean meal and oil, and one of the first in foreign sales of wheat, soybeans and corn, for some 35,000 million dollars in 2021, according to official figures.

“With this cost we are forced to be detained because we cannot work,” one of the FETRA representatives, Ariel Juárez, told AFP on a road near the city of Victoria, 300 km north of Buenos Aires

The crisis broke out in the middle of the 2021-2022 harvest of Argentine agriculture, pushed by the increase in the value of fuel under the influence of the soaring international prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Federation of Argentine Transporters (FETRA), organizer of the strike, said that “agricultural entities deny the real price of diesel that transporters are paying” and demand an increase in freight rates from agricultural employers.

“The compliance with unemployment is total and absolute”, pointed out Edgardo Maurenzi, another of the owners.

The government had convened on Wednesday a conciliatory meeting of the parties in conflict – FETRA and the agricultural employers – but the dialogue failed.

Trucks block a highway during a truckers’ strike in Victoria, Entre Ríos province, Argentina. (Marcelo Way / AFP /)

A liter of diesel is sold at service stations (vending) for 110 pesos (0.93 dollars), but FETRA denounced that “there are missing” and that additional fees began to be charged that brought the price to 191 pesos (1.6 dollars).

“The strike causes losses of about 100 million dollars a day, about 200 tons that are not unloaded at port terminals. We have 50 boats waiting.” said Idigoras.

The businessman admitted that there is not enough diesel for tractors and harvesting. Every day between 3,000 and 4,000 trucks enter the terminals and only a dozen are entering, revealed Idígoras.

Source: Elcomercio