The Sociedad Rural de Las Colonias, in Santa Fe, decided to withdraw from the SRA's Federal Council and joined La Paz and Villaguay, which had already left that space in recent weeks over the conflict with CRA and the Visec platform.
The Sociedad Rural de Las Colonias, in Santa Fe, decided to withdraw from the Federal Council of the Sociedad Rural Argentina (SRA), amid the dispute that the organization led by Nicolás Pino is waging with Confederaciones Rurales Argentinas (CRA) over the representation of producers in the interior and over the implementation of the Visec platform. The decision was taken by the new board of directors chaired by agronomist Pablo Lorenz and formally communicated on October 16 to the Federal Council authorities.
With this departure there are now three organizations that have left the SRA's Federal Council in recent weeks: the Sociedad Rural de La Paz and that of Villaguay, in Entre Ríos, and now Las Colonias. In the Santa Fe case, the explanation focused on avoiding a dual institutional interpretation stemming from the "dual membership", that is, simultaneous participation in CRA and SRA structures, without framing its exit as an explicit statement against Visec.
"It created a double reading, and that is what the board group did not want," explained Lorenz, who clarified that the organization was not a member of the Federal Council but rather affiliated with that participatory space. The withdrawal, he said, sought to set its situation in order and prevent the interpretation that it held two different positions on the same conflict.
The decision by Las Colonias was taken at the start of Lorenz's term, before Carsfe, the Santa Fe rural confederation that is part of CRA, asked its member organizations that participate in the SRA's Federal Council to formally state their position on Visec, through a communication signed by its president, Berardo Vignatti.
Visec was developed to certify that Argentine soybean and beef exports comply with the social and environmental requirements set out in European Union Regulation 2023/1115, which requires proving, among other things, that the products do not come from land deforested after December 31, 2020.
While the SRA backed the implementation of the system, CRA raised objections about its operating conditions, the costs and the demands it may pass on to producers. It also questioned the handling of sensitive production information and warned about the trade consequences that concentrating that data on a private platform could have.
The discussion escalated when Andrés Costamagna, an SRA director and a leading figure on its sustainability committee, publicly questioned CRA's position, accusing it of spreading misinformation and of holding a stance of "extreme denialism", and also comparing its behavior to the confrontation scenario that led to the 2008 conflict over sliding export taxes.
The response came in a letter signed by CRA president Carlos Castagnani and addressed to Nicolás Pino. In it, he demanded that Pino clarify whether Costamagna's statements represented the institutional position of the Sociedad Rural or were personal expressions of its director. CRA considered that the remarks had been "insulting, dismissive and lacking the respect that must prevail in the relationship between institutions that share the representation of the agricultural sector".
Against that backdrop, Lorenz preferred to keep a cautious stance. The president of Las Colonias acknowledged that there are operational difficulties in implementing the platform and considered that it is still too early to issue a definitive assessment. "It is not well organized and it had to be resolved in very little time, and the market quickly takes note; we have to understand that well, how it affects us and how it impacts us," he said.
"The position will be taken as more time passes; if we make a value judgment today, we could be wrong," he added.
Las Colonias' exit became known after two concrete moves in Entre Ríos. The Sociedad Rural de La Paz left the SRA's Federal Council and denounced "repeated institutional overreach" by Nicolás Pino's leadership, particularly the direct contacts of the national leadership with grassroots rural societies, without respecting the institutional channels of provincial representation.
The Sociedad Rural de Villaguay announced its definitive withdrawal from the Federal Council and closed ranks with CRA. In a letter addressed to the director of the SRA's District 7, Mariano Berisso, the organization stated: "As a clear example of this overreach, direct letters have been sent to various rural societies of Entre Ríos, committing a flagrant interference and bypassing the provincial delegation itself without consultation."
Villaguay's board clarified that the decision "does not seek, in any way, to alter or cut off the excellent relationship we maintain within the Mesa de Enlace", both at the provincial and national level, and that the goal is "to establish a limit regarding respect for the institutional framework".
In parallel, the Villaguay rural society backed CRA's position on the UATRE–VISEC agreement, linked to the implementation of a certificate of labor legality. "It is essential that producers know and review the conditions they accept when joining VISEC, especially given the possibility of authorizing visits by union representatives to rural establishments without the involvement of the competent public agencies," they stated.
And they added: "Our objection is not to labor oversight or to verifying compliance with the law, but to mechanisms that may exceed the legally established mandates."
In Entre Ríos, a dozen grassroots rural societies closed ranks within FARER, the provincial confederation that is part of CRA, after receiving a letter from Pino offering his direct intermediation. After that letter, the Gualeguaychú rural society refused to rent its premises for a meeting organized by Pino with Governor Rogelio Frigerio, which had to be moved to a party hall. The only grassroots rural society that remains with a "dual membership" in the province is the one in Feliciano.
