Overview
- Thousands of yerba mate, tea and tobacco producers drove tractors onto Misiones roads in a tractorazo on Saturday to press the national government for urgent help.
- Protesters delivered a petition asking that the Instituto Nacional de la Yerba Mate (INYM) recover regulatory powers and that the government set mandatory minimum prices, create a traceability system and provide accessible credit lines.
- Local producers say they now receive about ARS 250–280 per kilo of green leaf while estimating a breakeven price near ARS 500–600, which they say leaves many farms operating at a loss.
- Organizers blame DNU 70/2023 and Decree 812 for weakening INYM’s ability to set references and protect origin prices, a change they link to rising input costs, frozen interseason subsidies and falling domestic consumption.
- Producers warn that without policy fixes there could be mass chacra and cooperative closures, a wave of tareferos leaving for work in Brazil, and possible escalation of protests if the executive does not respond.