Patricia Bullrich met with Coninagro leaders and producers, who raised grievances on competitiveness, infrastructure, financing and the lack of agricultural insurance in the face of climate emergencies. The senator offered no concrete positions, while the association valued the start of a working agenda.
Senator Patricia Bullrich met on Tuesday night with Coninagro leaders and producers as part of the association's monthly pre-council meeting, and heard the sector's grievances over competitiveness, infrastructure, access to financing and the lack of agricultural insurance in the face of climate emergencies. The cooperative association publicized the meeting with a press release and a video.
According to Coninagro's press release, "within the framework of the association's usual monthly pre-council meeting, president Lucas Magnano, together with leaders and producers from different regions of the country, held a working meeting with national senator Patricia Bullrich. During the session, the current outlook for the agro-industrial sector was analyzed, a diagnosis of the reality of regional economies was drawn up and the main grievances and concerns facing agricultural production were presented."
In a video released by Coninagro, Bullrich said that all the issues that are "pending" in the relationship between Javier Milei's government and the sector were addressed. The euphemism of "competitiveness" served to refer to the economic difficulties facing many regional economies given the lagging exchange rate, the lack of infrastructure works and the hurdles to accessing productive financing.
The conversation also covered the lack of agricultural insurance or producer support in the midst of climate emergencies and the El Niño phenomenon, and concern was expressed about the future of INTA and Senasa, both subjected to a strong adjustment process. In addition, the biofuels, seeds and natural juice use bills were discussed, and Coninagro raised "the importance of defending the productive institutional framework of Coviar and IPCVA," two bodies threatened by the deregulation pushed by minister Federico Sturzenegger.
The press release stated that "at the end of the meeting, the senator gave a final assessment of the encounter, detailing the commitments made, the concerns received from the cooperative leaders and her parliamentary view on the priority issues presented by the association," although there were no concrete positions.
The outlet Bichos de Campo interprets the visit as part of a process in which Bullrich is distancing herself from Milei's government and positioning herself as an electoral alternative for 2027, in a context where the executive branch pays little attention to producers' agenda of grievances, beyond the schedule for reducing export duties set to take effect as of 2027.
The Mesa de Enlace association is no stranger to that political scenario either: it knows that Milei's and minister Luis Caputo's preferred interlocutor to discuss farming matters is the president of the Sociedad Rural, Nicolás Pino, and that is why it generously publicized the meeting with Bullrich, possibly a pre-candidate for president next year.
Magnano "referred to the institutional significance of the visit and stressed the importance of keeping an open and continuous working agenda with the senator in order to translate producers' needs into concrete bills." Along those lines, the association stated: "We have begun a line of work with senator Bullrich that will surely be fruitful over time."
