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Published in: Super Campo (Perfil)

Grupo Los Grobo feels part of the transformation of Argentine agriculture. They were one of the first that, since its inception (35 years ago), incorporated technology with the mentality of taking charge of the deterioration suffered by soils due to wear and excessive use of agrochemicals. They were also the first to certify ISO 9001 at the beginning of the nineties and one of the founders of the Sustainable Soy Round and adhering to good practices, which respected both environmental and social issues.

This week, PERFIL interviewed Gustavo Grobocopatel, shareholder of the company that started being family with 4 members, and today is part of a group that employs 700 people and plans to go from 22 to 38 branches throughout the country by 2022.

-What do you think of the return of the withholdings?
- They are measures that are known to not work. It is enough to observe that when there were retentions we did not grow and when they were taken out, the sector grew. It's a strange thing because the more taxes are imposed, the less the state collects so I hope someone will learn from this and solve it.

- How do you see the producers today?
- There is a general concern about the situation in the country. However, and despite having suffered a huge drought, thanks to this year there has been a record harvest, there is some optimism, but at the same time the feeling of making an effort that afterwards does not result in direct benefits for the country nor for themselves. And to this is added the headaches of always, as are the weeds, how difficult it is to hire staff because few people want to work in the field and the subject insurance, which are expensive and not too practical.

-What are the bottlenecks of the activity?
- I think that the producers in general are very good in technological matters and there are many who have great experience in the commercial, however it is necessary to explore the use of price coverage. For example now, the fact of not having taken coverage is causing important damages because the price falls. Other weaknesses are from the financial point of view: the producer has only one risk coverage mechanism that is to save the grain, which does not allow him to capture all the possibilities he has and that at some point can complicate things.

- What actions do you think Agroindustria should take?
- All the agriculture that comes is very linked to technology, both in relation to germplasm and robotics and precision agriculture, so everything Agroindustry can do to facilitate this process is welcome. One of them is the law of seeds, but also the law of leases, the opening of markets and obviously create incentives to transform the raw material into more diverse products and, instead of selling grains, sell processed products.

- There is newness in relation to HB4 wheat?
- I am convinced that biotechnology is key, what happens is that there is always resistance to change.

- Could it be that consumers are afraid?
- It seems to me that it has more to do with certain groups that are opposed to biotechnology and in general to the business model, which make objections and do operations in the media. Sometimes this is of interest to consumers and sometimes not and in fact consumers eat transgenic soy. What happens is that it is something that is brewing in public opinion ... but in only one sector, because if it were reported that this technology implies that the flour is cheaper and therefore the pan tabién, probably the reaction of the consumer would be different .

"The more taxes they put on, the less the state collects," concludes Gustavo Grobocopatel.

Automatic translation from spanish.