ARGENTINA.
FARMERS STORM OUT OF GOVERNMENT MEETING ON Tuesday.
Farm leaders who are locked in a fierce dispute with the government over duties and the crippling drought, stormed out of a meeting with the government on Tuesday afternoon.
Agricultural Minister Carlos Cheppi was chairing the meeting, when one of the farm leaders accused the government of running a witch hunt against the farm leaders.
The farm leaders exchanged heated words and got up walking out of the meeting, to hold a press conference stating that the government were not going far enough in the drought assistance and still complaining about the export duties on grain.
The whole dispute began in March of 2007 when the president linked the export duty on grain with the high global prices, which at the time were booming for soy in particular. However since that time and after a four month dispute the price of soy has lost 50% in value.
At 4 am on Wednesday morning there was thunder and lightening and a rain storm in the province of Buenos Aires, it was indeed enough rail to freshen things up after months of drought, however more rain is needed to salvage what crops remain.
The numbers of livestock lost according to the international newswires are pure fiction, while indeed 300,000 cattle have gone for premature slaughter, they were not dying in the paddocks as the newswires indicated.
