By Hannibal Blasco*
2022 experienced historic price increases in some comodities and key production inputs, some had increases of 100% and more, including the case of fertilizers, triggered by the war between Russia and Ukraine. The increase in international prices in dollars last year was constant, reaching its highest prices in the middle of the year, where it coincided with the stage of greatest consumption, that is, of application in Misiones. Russia is one of the world’s leading fertilizer producers, along with India, China and Morocco.
Producers, whether large or small, were preparing to fertilize the soil, however, given the increase in costs, among them what are called nitrogen fertilizers and special mixtures for crops, yerba mate, tea, tobacco and also for vegetables , they embarrassed all producers equally. Therefore, they decided, according to many of them, not to fertilize the soil that year, and the largest ones only prioritize what is essential, among those decisions to choose between the aforementioned prepared mixes or nitrogen fertilizers. Which had an easy result to predict: decreased yields per hectare, that is, fewer kilos of leaves harvested, given that the costs that had to be incurred only in fertilization left the entire production equation out of the scheme.
Solutions at the right time
Not only the pricing to the producer of the yerba leaf, tea and tobacco are key. During the critical dates in 2022, the state of Misiones, through its different organizations that reach the producer, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, the Secretary of State for Family Agriculture and the IFAI, actively participated by granting Bio-fertilizers to approximately 8,500 producersthanks to the program executed in conjunction with Agrosustentable S.A. This initiative was mainly oriented to family farming, and nitrogenous fertilizers and specific mixtures to herbal, horticultural and tea growers, to cushion the impact on production costs and so that they are not translated into consumer prices.
The international increase of more than 100% in dollars of the fertilizer that the missionary producers must and needed to buy in this scenario was not viable and not even possible for some to be able to buy them. In this sense, one of the last interventions was with the difficult moment that the tea sector is going through, with uncompetitive prices and the crossroads that Misiones is practically the only producing province, therefore it was necessary to encourage the producer seeking to improve the price of the leaf so that they do not migrate to other crops and in turn, faced with the impossibility of paying for a critical input such as fertilizer, the Ministry of Agriculture, together with COPROTE, in August of last year agreed to the delivery of 100 trucks of nitrogenous fertilizer , which is equivalent to 2,800,000 kilos of fertilizers to be delivered to producers.
Those with less than 10 hectares had priority, with the help of the dryers and members of the chain for their delivery, where it was agreed to pay only 35% of the value of the product in April 2023 at a zero rate and in turn subsidize dryers 30% of the electrical energy consumed. The outcome exceeded expectations, given the short maneuver time in which action had to be taken so that the inputs arrive on time and not delay or even lose a production cycle. “It is a very important aid for the beginning of the harvest and also for the economy of the producer. Fertilizers mean a high cost that we always have to face at the beginning of the harvest and because of that, fertilizing was usually done in low doses. With this subsidy, cultivation can be improved and yields increased,” José Kirilnko, a producer of seven hectares of tea in Campo Viera, told Canal 12.
Self-sustainability in critical sectors or inputs is a horizon that seems distant but no longer unthinkable. With the landing in the Agrosustentable Industrial Park for the production of bio fertilizers and bio insecticides, added to the research work and achievement of the natural fertilizer “Bio Plus”, successful development of the Bio Factory, and that continues in the development of natural insecticides , represent solutions to critical inputs for a province where the primary activity and work on the farms occurs throughout the entire territory.
Being able to count on these inputs produced within our borders is an extremely important strategic view in the process of ensuring the continuity and predictability of production beyond national and international circumstances, which, as we have observed, put many countries in the world in trouble. even to the major powers.
*Bachelor of Marketing
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