In the midst of reviewing its strategic objectives for the coming years, the Chamber of Health and Fertilizers (Casafe) appointed Agustina Veiga as the new president. Veiga currently works as a Human Resources Business Partner in the Indian company UPL, she has more than 20 years of experience in the development and management of people with a focus on implementing changes in organizations, and according to the presentation of her by the entity, its experience and strategic vision “have been fundamental for the development of projects that promote collaborative work based on the detection of shared pain points.”
-What are the pain points of the phytosanitary industry and agriculture in general today?
-One realizes that the pain points are generally the same for everyone, whether for the producer, the distributor or the companies that sell phytosanitary products. It is the great concern for working on sustainability. I believe that there is no member of the chain who is not involved in the issue. There is a great need for communication based on science in society in general, to be able to reach all actors with concrete information about what is being done in the field. The Agroculture campaign that we carry out with other entities has to do with communicating more about what is done in the field, about the way it is produced, because there is a great general lack of knowledge. At the same time, I think we have to focus on people. I am not an agricultural engineer and I do not come from the commercial area or the marketing area, but from the people or human resources area. Behind every thing there is a person, behind a producer there is a person, behind a distributor there is a person, behind companies there are people, behind institutions there are people. And the general problems that keep us all awake are basically the same things. How can we produce more and better, in an environmentally friendly way? The concern is genuine. How can we innovate more as companies and also at an individual level, in terms of production? And the biggest challenge we have is to find solutions collaboratively. This is something that Casafe has been doing very well in recent years, networking with all types of institutions to find collaborative solutions to common problems.
-What are the main advances that the industry has achieved in recent years, which make production more sustainable?
-The level of investment that the industry has had in biological products has been enormous in recent years, although the percentage is still quite lower compared to the rest of the phytosanitary products, the progress was very great. Today a lot of work is being done on communicating how to use all these biological products, complementing phytosanitary products in order to have better productivity and, above all, be more friendly to the environment. Everything that involves investment in alternative products has been a concern of the industry for many years and today we also see a possibility of incorporating more innovation in Argentina. Senasa, which is our regulatory body, is very focused on accelerating registrations of biological products in order to accelerate innovation in our country. Argentina, with respect to the world, is a country that has done things very well in terms of sustainability, in terms of soil health, we are pioneers in many things. The reality is that industries have been making a lot of investment together with the producer, who is the one who finally implements the new technologies.
-There is an idea that sustainability comes from less use of resources and less use of inputs, from less input-intensive agriculture. What evaluation does the phytosanitary sector make of this paradigm that can lead to lower sales?
-It is relative. The highest percentage of companies that are part of the Chamber have biological products. In other words, companies have been able to identify this need for change, which is why they are investing so much in new technologies that are more environmentally friendly. The trend is that less and less input will be used, more specific for each need and in the specific proportion. But other opportunities also arise, because the reality is that today we are seeing innovation projects from many companies in which they are bringing super innovative products. Another job opportunity opens up for companies, I don’t think that is a negative thing.
-How is the sector distributed in terms of nationally manufactured products and imported products and how is the import of these products flowing in the face of this new campaign?
-Between 70 and 80% of the products are produced locally. Obviously, the technical product is imported, but it is formulated locally, which is why it is a very high proportion of national industry. Importing itself is no longer a problem, the only difficulty we have today, like all industries, is how to deal with our previous commercial debts with our suppliers abroad.
-Wheat sowing and the 2024/25 campaign are already beginning. How have the sector seen the investment intention of the producers?
-There was a very strong change in conditions that caused the market to also have a moment of pause and review of how they were going to continue. But what we do see is that the investment intention is there, sowing is going to be sown. There may be a little delay in the producer’s decision-making, it is a matter of time, everything will be very sudden, but there is a willingness on the part of the producer to invest, without a doubt. They are going to wait until the last minute. There was still product in the channel, there is inventory, so in the current situation, obviously producers are going to first use what they have and then go out to buy, a different situation than last year.
