| BUENOS AIRES, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Argentina’s Undersecretary of Fishing Norberto Yahuar will replace the departing agriculture minister when a new government is sworn in this month, a high -level source at the farm ministry said.
Agriculture is a vital sector in Argentina, the world’s top soymeal and soyoil exporter. Current farm minister Julian Dominguez will leave the post to take a seat in Congress as of Dec. 10, when President Cristina Fernandez starts a second term in office.
“It’s confirmed. Yahuar will without a doubt become our next agriculture minister,” the source told Reuters late Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
Several Argentine newspapers reported Wednesday that Yahuar, a career politician in his native Chubut province and a close ally of the center-left government, was first in line for the job.
“It’s such a change for a fisheries guy to become the next agriculture minister ,” said Gabriel Perez, head of Mercampo, an agricultural consulting firm in Argentina.
“He’s loyal to Fernandez … and this will be a reward for his loyalty to Kirchnerism,” Perez said, referring to the policy mix implemented by Fernandez’s late husband and predecessor, former President Nestor Kirchner, whose interventionist economic measures angered many farmers despite high growth.
The possible appointment of Yahuar, who is largely unknown in the agricultural sector, surprised the industry expert.
Perez said there is concern that farming will be more regulated under Yahuar because in fisheries there are fewer companies and less freedom to produce.
Dominguez’s successor will face such challenges as maintaining an improved relationship with farmers as well as implementing new government grains trade policies, including an overhaul of local corn and wheat markets to help improve profits for growers.
Argentina’s government intervenes in corn and wheat trade with incremental export quotas and subsidies to local millers aimed at guaranteeing affordable food supplies. Officials also set minimum prices, but farmers say they are largely ignored by mills and grains exporters, the top buyers in the market.
The incoming minister will face other issues including regularizing imports of foreign agro-chemical products and technology and deciding how to handle new genetically modified soy seeds, said agricultural economist Manuel Alvarado Ledesma.
Seed firms are demanding guarantees from farmers before marketing new strains of GMO soy because they are wary of the local market after a state row over royalties with U.S. seed giant Monsanto.
Dominguez is credited with helping improve relations with Argentina’s farm sector after growers launched massive protests against the government in 2008 over a soy tax increase. The tax hike was later rescinded.
The agriculture ministry wooed voters ahead of the Oct. 23 presidential election by approving additional wheat exports, talking up plans for supporting local cooperatives and even running a booth at the country’s top farm show for the first time in years.
Fernandez won re-election by a landslide despite her tense relationship with farmers. She has not announced any upcoming cabinet changes or outlined specific policy proposals for the next four years. |
