Wheat is in the race and took speed: it is not convenient to stop it

Once impulse is taken in a race, it is better not to stop the envy. This applies to sport as for agriculture. The wheat, one of the country's main crops, offers an opportunity to boost this idea.The 2024/25 agricultural campaign of the cereal, the first fully made under the Milei administration, threw interesting figures. According to data from the Buenos Aires Cereal Stock Exchange, the harvest had an increase of 23.2% compared to the previous cycle when reaching 18.6 million tons. That figure, in turn, was 8.8% higher in the average of the last five campaigns. The sown area grew 7% compared to the 2023/24 cycle and reached 6.3 million hectares. The entity, in its final cycle report, stressed that 100,000 hectares were added to US $ 2860 million, 26% more than last year, according to information on the cereal bagAlthough there were climatic and market factors that contributed to the growth of wheat there is another reason that allowed cereal impulse: the government eliminated the barriers to export to repealing the formula of “equilibrium volumes” by which, from the State, it is He set an export quota that distorted prices. This policy was a direct heiress of which Guillermo Moreno imposed in 2007 when he handled the Ministry of Commerce, by ordering exporters to pay a maximum price to wheat. Few remember that this intervention was prior to that of the 125, due to mobile withholdings and led to Argentina to raise the need to import wheat.Finally, it is demonstrated that the lifting of export restrictions does not cause cereal shortage in the domestic market.But just as the Milei Administration took a positive step by ensuring non -intervention in the market, it was about to hit a shot in the foot when little of assuming proposed to Congress to increase export rights (DEX) to cereal in three percentage points. The opposition in Congress made him enter reasons. Now a new scenario opens. The Government ordered the temporal reduction of the DEX for wheat from 12% to 9.5%. It will be until June 30. In the chain there were already voices that alert about the need not to increase the aliquot and go one step further: they directly ask to eliminate it. This was what the National Wheat Table which met last week in Lions when the National Wheat Festival was held. “The decline in retentions must continue and not be temporary,” they said in the document and emphasized that “it would be necessary for law to”. Agricultural entities and organizations that participated in the 11th National Wheat Table, held in the city of Leones in the act, introduced a concept that does not have a wide discussion among economists: “The real fiscal balance is without retentions.” In other words, when the government has reached the surplus, it does not mention that it partly achieves it with a tribute that is clearly distortive like the DEX. Of course he also says is against this tax, but when eliminating it, he is reluctant to do so. The president of Coninagro, Lucas Maganpresent in Leones, congratulated the government for the reduction and pointed out that “an excellent sign of incentive to planting would be to eliminate them [por las retenciones] definitely”. In addition, he recalled, “It is not a large sum, they are around 200 million dollars that the producer, without a doubt, would compensate for volume and investment forward, which would be something perfectly realizable” The Triguera chain has sufficient evidence to demonstrate that when dex and trade are eliminated, production increases. That, in turn, improves the contribution of the activity to the economy, which includes the increase in the payment of taxes, which could more than compensate for the fall of tax revenue due to the elimination of withholdings. A true virtuous circleIn addition, the National Wheat Table developed a true roadmap to promote a clear improvement in cereal competitiveness, with issues ranging from marketing, market transparency, support for research, sustainability and measures of quality and segregation, among others.If Argentina has already started running the wheat race, it would be good if the impulse does not stop.According to The criteria of