Argentina-300,000 Cattle at risk in Drought.

ARGENTIA.

THE PRESIDENTS SPEECH 14 January 2009.

President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner, addressed the farmers of Argentina on Wednesday as promised and has offered aid in the midst of the worse drought in living memory in the hottest summer since 1955.

300,000 cattle in the north of the country are in danger of being lost to drought, so the president has removed the minimum weight for slaughter.

Farmers cannot afford fertilizer with the drop of 50% in commodity prices, so the government is giving a subsidy on fertilizer.

Low interest government loans are being made available, for all farm machinery as well as the family car.

However despite the fall in the prices of wheat, corn and soy, the government are not going to lower the export tax on those commodities.

Tax now stands at 35% of soy, 25% on wheat, 22.5% on corn and 15% on beef. The fact that these taxes are not going to be altered, is going to bring the farmers out fighting, once they are rested after their 6 weeks holidays on the beach in Mar del Plata, sometime in mid February.