Lingering beef, produce shortages follow Argentine farm strike
1:00 AM
Posted: Friday, April 04, 2008
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Cattle trucks returned to the main stockyard in the Argentina capital Thursday after a 21-day farm strike against rising export taxes, but shortages of beef and produce remained a headache for consumers nationwide.
The Liniers stockyard received about 1,000 cattle Thursday and expected more than 10,000 head on Friday. But many butchers reported freezers still empty of beef as they waited for meatpacking plants to resume production across Argentina, a major beef producer.
Trucks carrying farm produce rolled freely again from countryside to cities, forming long lines at busy markets.
The longest farm walkout in Argentine history ended Wednesday, although farmers are threatening to resume highway blockades in 30 days if the center-left government does not grant concessions on tax hikes that farmers say have reduced their profits to point where they can barely make a living.
Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said the government is interested in opening negotiations with farmers who blockaded highways and triggered shortages before suspending their strike.
But no talks started immediately.
"Surely we will create a space for dialogue," he said without elaborating.
Farmworkers walked off the job in mid-March to protest a presidential decree raising export taxes on soybeans and other crops from 35 percent to as much as 45 percent.
President Cristina Fernandez, who took office in December, says new taxes are a way to share some of the farm sector's gains from soaring commodity prices with those less fortunate. A quarter of the country's 40 million people are still mired in poverty after a 2002 economic meltdown.
Farmers insisted they are being forced to pay too much and left slim profits.
The Liniers stockyard received about 1,000 cattle Thursday and expected more than 10,000 head on Friday. But many butchers reported freezers still empty of beef as they waited for meatpacking plants to resume production across Argentina, a major beef producer.
Trucks carrying farm produce rolled freely again from countryside to cities, forming long lines at busy markets.
The longest farm walkout in Argentine history ended Wednesday, although farmers are threatening to resume highway blockades in 30 days if the center-left government does not grant concessions on tax hikes that farmers say have reduced their profits to point where they can barely make a living.
Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said the government is interested in opening negotiations with farmers who blockaded highways and triggered shortages before suspending their strike.
But no talks started immediately.
"Surely we will create a space for dialogue," he said without elaborating.
Farmworkers walked off the job in mid-March to protest a presidential decree raising export taxes on soybeans and other crops from 35 percent to as much as 45 percent.
President Cristina Fernandez, who took office in December, says new taxes are a way to share some of the farm sector's gains from soaring commodity prices with those less fortunate. A quarter of the country's 40 million people are still mired in poverty after a 2002 economic meltdown.
Farmers insisted they are being forced to pay too much and left slim profits.
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