Argentinian organic food program coming to Mexico

Bumper crop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mexico News Daily | Saturday, August 9, 2014

 

An organic agricultural program designed to provide food security to poor communities is being imported from Argentina. Established 20 years ago, Pro Huerta now includes more than 624,000 home gardens and 130,000 small farms, involving 3.5 million people in the program.

Seeds and even farm animals are provided to participants, along with training in organic agricultural principles. They grow healthy food that promotes a diverse and balanced diet.

“Today we have three and a half million small producers, some of whom have exceeded their own needs and sell the surplus . . . .” says the program’s director, Verónica Piñero.

Thanks to the program, small producers receive two kilos of seeds of all kinds twice a year, from leaf greens to tomatoes and herbs. Sixty per cent of domestic food production in Argentina is provided by family-based agriculture.

Pro Huerta has already been exported to Haiti.

A delegation of technicians traveled to Mexico recently to begin a training program with technicians from the Agriculture Secretariat. Pro Huerta is introduced to communities by identifiying leaders to put it in motion, and set up progressive training.

Information is shared throughout the country with a network of promoters.

Garden plots of 100 square metres are intended to supply fresh food to four or five people throughout the year. It was designed to address food shortages in areas with limited resources, but is also seen as a means of promoting a natural-foods diet.

Source: El Economista (sp)

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Mexico and Argentina Agree to Boost Trade

globalpost.com


MEXICO CITY – Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo and Argentine Industry Ministry Debora Giorgi have agreed to promote bilateral trade, especially in the automotive industry, officials said.

The agreement was reached during the visit that an Argentine delegation made to Mexico City last Thursday and Friday, the Economy Secretariat said in a statement.

Guajardo and Giorgi focused on examining ways to boost bilateral trade and investment, the secretariat said.

“Both officials said they were extremely willing to explore all options for expanding trade in both directions,” the secretariat said.

The officials discussed the automotive industry, in which trade is regulated by Economic Complementation Agreement, or ACE, 55, under the Latin American Integration Association, or ALADI.

Guajardo and Giorgi made a commitment to “improve efforts to move the integration process forward in both industries, especially in the auto parts sector, promoting mutual investment in said sector,” the secretariat said.

Mexico and Argentina reached a trade agreement covering the automotive industry in 2012 that allowed them to resolve differences over quotas.

Automotive industry representatives were present at the meeting between Guajardo and Giorgi.

Mexico and Argentina strengthen their agricultural cooperation and trade

freshplaza.com

Enrique Martinez y Martinez, head of SAGARPA, and Carlos Casamiquela, Argentina's Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, held a meeting to strengthen the scientific and technical cooperation, as well as the agro-food trade, between both countries.

Martinez exposed Mexico's interest in developing joint projects in priority areas.

Mexico has significant business opportunities with Argentina, as it has tariff preferences for agricultural products, such as vegetables, and other products.

Mexico is Argentina's ninth biggest food exporter and, as such, it should exploit its commercial potential.

This meeting took place given the upcoming V Meeting of the Joint Committee on Scientific and Technical Cooperation between both countries, which will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Source: Sagarpa

Publication date: 1/21/2014

Mexico eyes Argentina oil deal, Pemex expansion

upi.com

Dec. 3, 2013 at 7:45 PM 

 

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Mexico is hoping a reconciliation between Argentina and Spanish oil major Repsol will lead to a Mexican entry in Argentina's lucrative energy sector and improve chances of its own development, analysts said. 

 

Mexico's state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, brokered a deal in November that's seen as likely to have eased an 18-month deadlock over Repsol's demand for $10 billion compensation over the Argentine government's seizure of YPF, the Argentine oil and gas company majority owned by Repsol.

The talks led to a deal seen as likely to halve the compensation claim and settle the issue with $5 billion in Argentine bonds. Repsol isn't keen on the compromise and is seeking professional help to work out details of the compensation package.

Argentina has hired international experts to help resolve the dispute, which soured Buenos Aires' ties with Madrid and upset European Union leaders enough to put the Latin American country's EU trade at risk.

As a compensation deal takes shape, Pemex is moving to forge its own partnership with YPF that will give the Mexican energy major a say in YPF's future exploration and investment plans, Tiempo Argentino financial newspaper reported.

Pemex wants a role in developing Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale oil deposits in Patagonian Neuquen and has already sent a team of experts to Argentina to explore prospects.

The Pemex move is significant, analysts said, because the Mexican state oil industry is looking into developing Mexico's own shale oil as well as deepsea hydrocarbon resources in the Gulf of Mexico.

Both areas are underexploited by Pemex, mainly because of lack of cash resources, but a partnership in Vaca Muerta may open up new prospects for cash investment and other international partnerships, analysts said.

Mexico is debating how to go about attracting foreign investors into its own state-run energy sector, which has tough rules restricting foreign participation. Analysts said constitutional changes would be required to change rules prohibiting foreign participation in Mexican oil industry.

Pemex board member Fluvio Ruiz Alarcon told Tiempo Argentino the company was "on track for a formal agreement" with YPF on a future partnership. Pemex is a minority shareholder in Repsol and has emphasized its neutrality in the Repsol-YPF talks by criticizing Repsol's management style and its position on the compensation deal with Argentina.

Pemex executives have said Mexico's oil industry can only develop through foreign investment, prohibited since it nationalized its own oil industry in 1938. Experts in the industry say Mexico needs to more than double its spending on exploration for new oil, both deep sea deposits in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore shale oil reserves.

Ternium advancing Mexico, Argentina projects

By Samuel Williams - Wednesday, November 6, 2013

A new galvanized steel plant in Mexico's Nuevo León state is nearing full production, Luxembourg-based Ternium (NYSE: TX) CFO Pablo Brizzio said in a call to discuss the company's Q3 results.

The Tenigal plant, a 51:49 JV with Japan's Nippon Steel, which will produce galvanized steel products for Mexico's automotive industry, is "in the ramp-up period and we believe it will reach full capacity in the first half of next year," Brizzio told the call on Wednesday (Nov 6).

The hot-dip galvanizing plant was expected to have a capacity of 400,000t/y and require US$350mn investment, Ternium said at the launch of the JV in October 2010.

Ternium México is also continuing to ramp up its US$1.1bn cold rolling mill in Nuevo León state, Brizzio added.

The mill is expected to produce nearly 2Mt/y of specialty steel products primarily for the car industry, Ternium said in September.

A new slab casting mill at the company's Siderar flat steel subsidiary in Argentina is also scheduled to begin operations in 3Q14, Brizzio said, which will produce steel slab for the Argentine and Mexican markets.

CAPEX

Ternium is coming to the end of its current capex program, which is expected to run into 2014 as expansion continues in Argentina, Brizzio added.

While the company is continuing to review its future capex plans, spending for next year is expected to total about US$600mn, he said.

Demand for Ternium's products is "looking good" for the remainder of the year in Mexico and the US, the CFO added, with no change expected in Argentina, which saw "healthy levels" of orders in Q3.

Latin America-focused Ternium - a subsidiary of Italian-Argentine group Techint - also has operations in Colombia and Guatemala.