ARGENTINA.
THE SOY KING SPEAKS OUT.
There is no doubt that Gustavo Grobacopatel, is the king of the Argentine soy industry, as he alone produces more soy beans than any other company in Argentina he usually shuns the press and media.
However in a long interview with the nations leading political newspaper, he gave his own opinion of the current situation in farming and words on the farmers dispute, that has been going on for close on a year.
Gustavo is the man who pioneered planting pools of farmers in Argentina, and was responsible for making Argentina a world class player in the global soy trade.
He referred to his Jewish roots and heritage, saying " In the nineteenth century many Central European Jews migrated to Argentina, mainly from the Ukraine and Russia to escape the tyranny there, they began to work the land here as peasant farmers and were known as the Jewish Gauchos".
The Grobocopatel family now owns 12,000 hectares of land, but leases a further 250,000 hectares for the planting of soy.
They also have large farming interests in Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil as well as Colombia.
In respect to the bitter dispute between the government and the farmers, Gustavo proposed dialogue between the president and the farmers.
"If export taxes are not lowered or international prices for soy do not rise, the farm production machine will suffer extreme damage. For the first time in my lifetime I have seen fields not tended, abandoned and not even planted because of the drought, no matter how bad things were we always planted something" he said.
"If last year the farmers dispute was conceptual, this year they are running for their lives, fighting to survive things are that bad" he went on.
Gustavo did not get involved in last years farm dispute, nor did any of the other big players including George Soros.
He admits doing business with the current government, and being the advisor on soy to the government of Venezuela and Colombia, a fact he says " Should make Argentina proud, that we are asked to advise other counties on how to produce soy".
His company turns over a half a billion US dollars a year in Argentina, he said " We practically re-invest all earnings and have a work force of over 1,000 people on our farms. We have 5,000 clients and 4,000 small farmers on our books in Argentina, today in the economic downturn, I make more money from my salary as a manager, than I make as the largest shareholder".
"There has to be dialogue and it has to be now", he concluded.