They warn about the disappearance of small farmers due to lack of profitability.

The Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA) raised its voice again on Monday to demand the urgent elimination of withholdings, a request that is gaining more and more strength in agriculture due to the bad financial situation that the sector is going through as a result of low international prices and the risk of an incipient drought that is being felt in some key areas of the country.

It did so through a novel social media campaign, in which it used puns starting with the letters De and Ex, to express the need for DEXs (the abbreviation for export duties) to be removed.

"Urgent elimination of the DEXs now!", is a kind of slogan that runs through all the posts, in which words such as crumble, degradation, disappearance, uprooting, exclusion and expulsion are used, in reference to the effects that withholdings have on agricultural production.

"The countryside urgently needs the elimination of withholdings. The delay in the measure will cause a cessation of payments, the bankruptcy of thousands of producers and a strong brake on the development of the interior and the economy associated with the productive sector," CRA stressed.

Then, he justified that DEXs are "an unsustainable tax burden," because "they decrease the profitability of the producer, reducing the net price they receive for their products, eroding their profit margins and discouraging investment in technologies, high-quality seeds, modern machinery and more."

The State takes 64.6% of agricultural income: "If withholdings disappeared, it would be 36%"

He also explained that "DEXs do not kill in one fell swoop, but they are signing the disappearance of the producer", because "they generate regional inequality, since regional economies, many of which depend on the export of agro-industrial products, are more vulnerable; the large costs add to the retentions, making producers in remote areas of the country less competitive."

Urgent DEX removal now! Because they are an unsustainable tax burden.

He also added that "DEXs affect both the individual economy and agricultural development as a whole" and in this way "the productive reality leads to the disappearance of producers."

"The drop in international commodity prices, the high cost of inputs and the enormous tax burden show negative margins in many activities such as soybeans," he reviewed.

And he added: "DEXs generate a gap that distances us from development, reduces the ability of Argentine producers to compete in global markets, especially against countries that do not apply these charges. This can lead to the loss of international markets and affect the country's reputation as a reliable supplier."

CÓRDOBA ALSO STANDS AGAINST THE WITHHOLDINGS

In the same way, from Córdoba, the Liaison Table of that province also added its claim against the retentions.

From the point of view of the Cordoba countryside, "the agricultural sector has been enduring a state of inefficiency for more than 20 years, with unsustainable expenses and a fiscal pressure incompatible with production."

The problem is that the adverse climatic situation and international markets are added to this panorama, which is what has revealed the "tremendous damage" caused by the retentions; "a distorting and discriminatory tax that, due to its magnitude and persistence, is suffocating the sector."

For this reason, the Cordoba Table considers it "imperative" that the national government review and take measures regarding the withholdings, because otherwise "the prolongation of this tax puts the survival of small producers at serious risk."

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