After President Javier Milei decided to cancel the Project for the Integration of Small Producers into the Wine Chain (Proviar II), financed with Non-Refundable Contributions (ANR) from the Nation and which was intended for initiatives of small producers in the industry wine producers who do not easily access credit, the representative of Coviar in San Juan provided statements in this regard.
Gustavo Samper, president of the San Juan Wine Chamber and vice president of the Argentine Wine Corporation (Coviar) explained to HUARPE DIARY that: “The idea is to move forward, we have several meetings on the subject this week. We will try with the IDB to unblock a little, because what the national government does not want are the ANR, but we will try to transform them into soft loans to be able to continue.”
File photo. Gustavo Samper is the Coviar representative in San Juan.
Regarding how this program was being carried out and what is to come, Samper indicated: “The idea is to start and be able to take it to the level of soft credits, what happens is that wine growers are not considered for credits and Economy doesn’t help much either. This is a loan from the IDB to the Argentine economy, the guarantor is the national State. The consideration that must be made is that it is intended for investment, it is different from when you request a loan to pay interest or current expenses.”
“It is to improve viticulture, to be able to improve exports and to be able to have labor and modernize the field, this is fundamental,” said Samper.
What is Proviar?
Proviar is a long-standing initiative. The first edition was managed by Coviar, in 2012. The results were so good that the IDB “congratulated the entity for the way in which they had invested all of the funds,” according to Mario González, president of the entity. .
In 2021, the former Minister of Agriculture of the Nation, announced the launch of Proviar II, which would consist of an ANR fund for US$ 50 million, of which, 40 were going to be contributed by the IDB and 10 would be deposited by the Nation. .
However, the credit had to wait two years, until March 2023 for full approval by the IDB, while the call for the projects was made last July.
