The Ministry of Economy established this Tuesday the yerba dollar at $300, to tempt yerba producers to export their product and liquidate foreign exchangeand experts skeptically analyze what impact it may have on the foreign exchange market and the Central Bank’s reserves.
Since April, Economy has incorporated more regional economies every week to the possibility of being able to export with a dollar of $300, but the result has been zero: yesterday, due to the Export Increase Program (PIE), only a little more than u$ were liquidated $55 million.
It is that, if you compare this spread dollar of $300 against the values of the financial dollars or the dollar futures, does not have attractiveness for exporters, experts explain.
The yerba market and the export dollar
“The differentiated dollar for regional economies impacts those products that are exported to a large extent. The yerba exports are important, but the strength of the commercialization is the domestic market“, explained the deputy Alfredo Schiavoni (PRO Misiones).
“It’s better than nothing, but it’s still a patch. It would be more logical to lower national and provincial taxesand make our yerba production more competitive in the face of our direct competitors: Brazil and Paraguay,” he stressed.
On the other hand, yerba has fixed prices, established every 6 months by the National Institute of Yerba Mate, which are always out of date.
The yerba mate has fixed prices regulated by the State
“Yerba mate is the only agricultural product with a regulated price that is mandatory by the INYM”, complained Schiavoni, and explained that “this determines that in most cases, the Secretary of Agriculture of the Nation lauds, setting the price far from the interests of the missionaries and the people of Corrientes”.
“The determination of the price, according to a cost structure, in any case, should take into account the average production, not that of the marginal producer. The INYM should ensure that there are no marginal producers, that all are as a floor in an average production of 6,000 kg of green leaves/hectare/year,” he specified.
Why the new yerba dollar is born unattractive
“When establishing the PIE, what the government did not count on was that inflation did not come hand in hand with products, but from the excessive issuance of recent times and this destroyed even the export differential,” said Mariano Echegaray, from the study Echegaray Ferrer & Asoc.
Besides, “The benefit does not seem to be attractive while the financial dollar market offers a price of more than 100% with respect to the commercial dollar”considered Karina Castellano, Director of Legal Department of Customs and Exchange Law of the Lisicki, Litvin & Asoc law firm, and listed the following PIE problems:
1. The benefit is not automaticbecause the products must be eligible, requirements must be met and commitments must be made.
“These commitments are for the purpose of making sale prices reasonable, a term that is certainly indeterminate and difficult to determine in an economy where inflation is one of the highest in the world,” Castellano considered.
The Export Increase Program has no incentives against financial dollars
2. No deadlines are established for the analysis of the presentations to be made by the exporter, in such a way that the exporter does not know how long it will take for his presentation to be “accepted”.
And Echegaray added that, “If we add to the conditions the behavior of the future dollar, it is clear that what they offer today as a differential is taken away by the economic situation.” I list the following prices:
- June future dollar: $270
- July future dollar: $300
- Dollar futures August: $360
“A similar situation occurred with the case of the soybean dollar, where the fall in international prices made the exchange differential disappear and with it the sales expectations of producers,” said the expert.
What are the eligibility conditions that lock the yerba dollar
Castellano described as follows the Conditions that the Government places on producers from regional economies to allow them to export with one dollar at $300:
PIE beneficiaries must maintain or increase jobs
1. Export eligible productswhich are the ones that list successive resolutions.
2. Have exported the eligible products, within the immediately preceding 18 months to April 9.
3. Maintain or increase jobs.
4. Supply the local market with eligible products, having to maintain or increase the supply volumes.
5. Comply with the price agreements for the local market established by the Secretary of Commerce.
“These conditions mean that the PIE, more than an incentive, becomes a sentence for the future“, emphasized Echegaray, adding that, “far from the regional economies, only the big players in the chains benefit. We have a program to export that does not encourage anyone,” he concluded.
