Ag commodities trading floor - where's the women?

In Rosario, there is still a trading floor for agriculture commodities at the Rosario Chamber of Commerce. Rosario is the third largest city in Argentina with 1 million people and the main ag hub because of the proximity to the grain producing land.

While it was a slow day with limited trades because of a drop in the US dollar, it was interesting to see the traders in their suits mostly visiting and talking on their cell phones.

I was surprised to see that there was only one woman on the floor.

I asked why.  “Oh,” said the man, “There are a few woman traders but this job is very stressful and not one that most woman want.”  But, he went on to reassure me that there were many women working in more high up administrative positions behind the scenes.

T6 is impressive multi-business hub

In Argentina, many of the important agribusinesses are located close to the Parana River. The river is the main channel for exports and also imports of raw materials.

One such business is the 220 hectar T6 company site. It employs 750 people and operates seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The company focuses on the whole value chain for soy and other grains from unloading raw materials, to storage and processing, to crushing to produce vegetable oil and biodiesal and glycerine, which is used for cosmetics. Then the material is loaded and shipped from the same site.

The plant unloads and loads 2,600 trucks (semis) a day. They also unload 550 rail cars a day and up to 8 barges. The plant also has agreements with other plants within a 30 km radius that can process on their behalf.

This is no small operation – 7 plants in one operation. The high level of competitiveness of this operation is attributed to: technology, full integration of the operations – all the plants are interconnected on the same site, and the biggest Oleochemical complex in the world.

At this place, soy produces food and energy, not food versus energy.

Process:  Dry beans are heated, crushed then rolled and flaked like corn flakes. The flexed are washed with a chemical to take out the oil. Then the chemical is taken out and recovered. The product moves through a screening and drying system to get out the soy meal. The left over hulls are produced into pellets to feed livestock. With the hulls removed, protein levels in the soy meal increase. Then there is the production of biodiesel and glycerine.

And there’s another benefit. Having the facilities centralized is creating interest from other companies to locate on or near the site.

For me, there is a definite parallel to how we consider building ag business hubs in the future. 

In Regina, there is the start of a hub, to the West of the city. There is a huge grocery distribution centre.  However, on the east side of the city, we also have a large lentil producer. 

I wonder….in the future, will we pay more attention to locating like businesses together?

I suspect there are advantages. Maybe we create the Bay Street or Wall Street of ag? I wonder what it would take to have all the right players at the table?

A tale of two cities, safety first

I always planned for a bit of alone time in BA. And like all big metropolitan areas, you need to be careful. I knew this, but got even more sense of it on three occasions. The firsts included friends who had been there for work providing me with a sense of caution. There was nothing terribly specific but a general sense of being a little more cautious – the usual, like not wearing expensive jewellery, or flashing around money or a map – things that draw attention to yourself. Then, prior to the congress, another list of tips that were very similar was emailed my way. Again, most are common sense things but as a Canadian living in a relatively small centre, not something that one tends to think about in too much depth. For example, carrying your backpack to the front of you rather than the back to make it more difficult to grab. Or, holding onto your purse rather than letting it dangle off your shoulder.

I took it to heart, but it all became more real the day two of the conference delegates experienced crime first hand. They were not too far from the downtown hotel when something was splatter on them from above. Two people rushed to their aid, providing Kleenex to help them. And as they were doing that, the two helpers grabbed their two camera equipment bags and hopped into a vehicle that was driving by. They were not hurt, but their equipment was gone.

A few days later, crime again came to our attention. As part of a city tour, the buses stopped at La Boca. This is a very famous spot in BA. It is where immigrants first came to the country and also the neighbourhood of the birthplace of the tango. The spot is an intersection of several avenues where tango dancers pose for a photo with you for a price and local artists show their work in the charming streets. However, the tour guides were very deliberate to point out the two areas where we should stay. We did and walked in small groups and there were no issues, but I can’t help but wonder what exactly they feared. I suspect there was something, and particularly after the camera bag incident- news of which travelled quickly- that they simply didn’t want to chance another robbery.

We were also cautioned not the change money except at a bank or the hotel because there is lots of black market money and the exchange rate fluctuates daily with the dollar, but also in the moment depending on who you trust to change the money.  I witnessed one market vendor refuse Argentinean currency because a small section of the corner of the bill was missing.

It is with this as a foundation that I set out to spend three days on my own so I was a bit nervous. I chose to carry a soft bag of cloth that zips which contained my purse, my phone, a water bottle and a sweather. And the bag certainly wasn’t new.

So, how did it go?

Very well!

The desk clerks at the boutique hotel were so helpful. They suggested where to go and what to see. Sometimes I walked and sometimes I got a cab – average price of 50 pesos which is less than 10 dollars.  I visited two art galleries, a couple of malls, two huge markets with thousands of people, the opera house, and avenue Santa Fe – imagine Robson or Queen Street in TO but move it to BA.  I went out at night and even to a dance club. And while I keep my eyes open, I did not feel threatened. Yes, there are some people with issues on the street, but that exists at home too.  And, when there were large crowds, the police presence was evident. They were not intruding but they were there.

I chose to treat myself to cabs and they were easy to locate and have metres.

My key message, act like a local, dress like a local and behave in a way that doesn’t advertise that you are a tourist. Seems like common sense, but obviously the camera equipment folks either didn’t hear it or take it to heart.

IFAJ Top learnings

-Argentina is 40 million people but produces enough to feed 400 million

-While Argentina may be best know to Canadians for wheat production, that was far from the focus of what the local organizers choose to focus on. There was really only one word; “SOY”  Wheat is being used in rotation, with soy seeded into it and then corn the in following year, but even this is not occurring as often as some would like it to.  When prices are good, farmers sow soy on top of soy.

-Argentina is pinning hopes on soy and, particularly, China.  Although China has crush capacity, Argentinean experts argue that the shorter distance of the raw soy beans to the crush plants and then to ports in that country allow for transportation cost savings and therefore a cheaper product.

-The Argentinean Secretary of the Ministry of Ag is not afraid of GMO and in fact he said with pride that he just signed papers to approve the 29^th GMO variety in the country.  While parts of Europe are definitely a market for Argentina, the message came through that Argentina is doing no till and GMO farming to feed that world and ensure supply for new markets like China.  In parts of Europe where the focus is on non-GMO, this could be an issue, but the Minister wasn’t apologetic when asked. When I spoke with others in BA, they were not so hot on GMO but this was no scientific survey.

-While there was a dairy and a livestock tour. Much of the time was spent around precision farming.

-Only in Argentina can two journalists who are married and 80 years old keep their daily radio show and also operate an orange and peach farm that specializes in Agro tourism. Although many Canadian farm writers also farm, I can’t imagine Peter Mansbridge running a farm.

-No till is gaining in popularity. It reduces soil erosion and also cuts down on cost as you don’t have to spend fuel on the land as often. Fuel is a major cost in Argentina.

-Brazil and Argentina have a symbiotic relationship—each country recognizing that they need the other, but with little love loss.

-The economist says world trade talks are dead and will be replaced by bilateral agreements.

-The Argentinean Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture says farm consolidation is part of what the current administration wants to see, and is in favour of keeping export taxes.

Farmers that we heard from say it is a problem for sure because the taxes cut their profit margins, but the secretary offered no concession in his speech and the cab driver says farmers and land owners are wealthy and can afford to pay the taxes to help support public works. Another theory, however unproven, is that the government uses the export taxes to help keep other industries such as car makers in business. I was told that in the city of BA, many of the cars on the street are built in Argentina.

-From a Argentine government perspective, the four pillars for better agriculture as no till, crop rotation, biotech and pesticide stewardship and precision agriculture. 12% of land in Argentina is used for crops. The average yield from main crops has doubled in 20 years on the same land base due to genetics, fertilizer and no till. There is a belief that fertilizer use can grow and continue to produce results. 

Dukorol - tastes bad, but hopefully it works!

Two weeks until departure and I just got my preventative illness prescriptions filled. One is an antibiotic in case I get sick on the trip.

The other is Dukorol. I took the first of two doses this morning. It's a vaccine to prevent cholera and traveler's diarrhea.  You mix 5 oz. of water with a package of sodium bicarbonate, then drop in the liquid vaccine and drink the whole thing on an empty stomach.

I know prevention and the benefits will be worth it, but stomaching this first thing in the a.m. is enough to cause one to rethink trying new and unique foods when they travel to avoid drinking this preventative potion.

And, I know me....I am the adventurous "try as much different local food as you can when in a foreign place", so a couple minutes of discomfort this a.m. will be well worth it!

 

Micheal Stark and his wife Evelyn (my grandpa)

Why I wanted to go to Argentina

The congress in Argentina had a huge draw for me. My grandfather, on my dad's side, Michael (Mike) Francis Stark, was born in Guamini, near Buenos Aires in 1905. His parents had moved there from Russia as near as I can tell. I have a copy of the ship’s manifesto when he sailed to Canada on May 12, 1913 from Buenos Aires with his parents.  They settled near Chamberlain, Saskatchewan where there was already family living. After a pretty hard childhood, Mike ran the general store in the town with help from his wife, Evelyn, my grandmother, and four kids, including my dad, Edward.  Grandpa was also the Massey-Harris and Cockshutt dealer.  He took up farming later in life in 1958 when he turned the store operations over to my uncle. For me, this trip feels a bit like going back in history since my grandfather died when I was only four. My plan is to see if I can get a photo at the dock where they would have shipped out. I don't beleive in ghosts but with my dad now gone too, this seems like a way to somehow connect with my roots 100 years later.