The Misiones government confirmed that the national administration does not plan to change its deregulation policy for the yerba mate market, a decision that deepens tension between the province and the federal government over one of the country's most sensitive regional economies.
Agro and Production Minister Facundo López Sartori said he held a two-hour meeting with Deregulation and State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger. According to the Misiones official, the answer was categorical: there will be no changes.
The national decision directly affects the yerba mate chain. Misiones argues that deregulation worsens the situation for producers, cooperatives and rural workers, especially amid rising costs and prices that do not cover production.
López Sartori questioned the presentation of the measure as economic modernisation. For the province, removing regulatory tools leaves the weakest links of the chain exposed to unequal negotiations with industry and commercial actors.
The conflict once again places the National Yerba Mate Institute at the centre of debate. Productive sectors are demanding that the body recover its ordering capacity, particularly the power to intervene in reference prices for green leaf and semi-processed yerba.
The discussion is not merely sectoral. Yerba mate structures rural employment, territorial settlement, cooperativism, small farms and industrial activity in Misiones and part of north-eastern Argentina.
The national government's position leaves a deeper political dispute open. While the federal administration defends deregulation as a general principle of economic policy, Misiones warns that applying that logic without buffers can damage an entire regional economy.
The next stage of the conflict will depend on the ability of the province, producers and cooperatives to sustain institutional pressure. At stake is not only the price of green leaf, but the productive balance of a chain that defines identity, employment and territory.
