La protesta agraria argentina en el New York Times

New York Times publica hoy domingo 27, un artículo de su corresponsal Alexei Barrionuevo sobre la protesta agraria que puntualiza dos o tres de los aspectos importantes del conflicto, todavía en curso.
Si bien el artículo es una breve reseña para consumo de lectores norteamericanos, las líneas generales quedan claras: la demanda de productos agrícolas, fundamentada en el crecimiento de Asia, dió una nueva oportunidad para el crecimiento económico de prácticamente toda la superficie cultivable argentina, posibilitando la aparición de toda una nueva generación de productores pequeños y medianos, con capacidad de innovación y fuerte apoyo a la tecnología aplicada al campo. Un crecimiento que encuentra el obstáculo del condicionamiento estatal destinado a apropiarse de la parte del león de esta nueva fuente de ingresos.

The farmers say they are concerned not only about profits, though the steeper taxes have cut into them. They also say Mrs. Kirchner’s policies are threatening to reverse one of the great agricultural booms in Argentina’s history and to snuff out a technological and entrepreneurial revolution that has made the country a leading food source in a world racked by hunger and rising food prices.
“We have an enormous historic opportunity to grow as a country, but the government wants to punish a sector that should continue to be an engine of growth,” said Marcelo Marchetti, 39. “The world has opened its doors to us, and here we are fighting among ourselves.”

El artículo destaca el aspecto conocido del condicionamiento de precios a las políticas gubernamentales de manejo de precios internos: los mecanismos internos de equilibro social y administrativos, que no se resuelven, como siempre, son tratados con condicionamientos que van contra la evolución económica real:

Mrs. Kirchner’s politics have stirred memories of Gen. Juan Domingo Perón, who in the early 1950s used profits from agricultural exports to industrialize the country and lift the poor. Trying to check inflation that independent economists put at close to 20 percent, Mrs. Kirchner, too, turned to farm profits and export controls, looking to increase subsidies for the poor and food supplies at home.
Farmer discontent had been growing since at least 2006, when Néstor Kirchner, her husband and predecessor as president, limited beef exports to ensure a cheap supply at home. Once a dominant meat supplier, Argentina has watched as Brazil has passed it by, building the world’s largest beef export industry. Last year, even their tiny neighbor Uruguay exported more beef per capita than Argentina.
Rural angst reached a boiling point in early March when the government increased export tariffs for the second time since October. The policies have also set de facto ceilings on prices.
Mrs. Kirchner has criticized Argentine farmers as focusing too much on cash crops like soybeans at the expense of products needed for Argentine consumption, like dairy and meat. Soy exports have grown by 263 percent since 1997, to 11.5 million tons last year. She cast the farmers as greedy oligarchs in 4-by-4 vehicles, and as unpatriotic plotters intent on overthrowing the government.

(Falta en el artículo destacar que la caída ganadera también tiene otro componente: la preferencia, basada en los precios internacionales, por los granos en lugar de la ganadería. Por otra parte, los límites a las exportaciones ganaderas pueden extenderse a las lácteas, por ejemplo: en un momento en que este mercado está en auge en el mundo, en Argentina cae, atado a condicionamientos de precios)
Un aspecto que advierte el articulo, es, una vez mas, la posibilidad de que ante la falta de estrategias de los gobiernos argentinos, que el negocio sea controlado por Brasil:

But the conflict over export taxes has bred uncertainty about Argentina, Mr. Basse said, and international grain companies have already signaled their preference to pour more money into neighboring Brazil, another agricultural juggernaut where farm policies have been clearer and more encouraging. Both are considered critical to global efforts to fill the soaring demand for soybeans in China and India.