The study-tour of Argentina includes visits and interviews with several companies and government agencies important to the grain and livestock industries.  Below are some pictures from Clemson and Auburn University students who visited Argentina in March 2009.

 

Visits to Grain and Livestock Agribusiness

Argentina Farm and Agribusiness Study-Tour

We are going to meet with farmer associations in order to learn how farmers work together in Argentina to improve their production, marketing and risk management skills.  We are going to visit AACREA and Sociedad Rural Argentina (SRA).

 

AACREA was founded in 1960 in order to promote the technological and managerial development of its members. Striving, through participative methods, to attain the all-round improvement of producers, technicians, and the rural community as a whole.

 

SRA was founded in 1866 in order to bring cattle breeds from England to develop the Argentina livestock production in the Pampas. From that origin, it has evolved into a major society with thousand of farms distributed all over Argentina. At this time, SRA represents the pillar political organization of farmers together with three other organizations. SRA provides analysis of the effect of policy on farm and rural economies.

We are going to visit the Liniers Cattle Market which is the largest market in world. The market operates on a daily basis and the average sale is 15,000 head per day. Cattle is sold on a per corral basis and auctioned to the highest bidder.

 

On the right we can observe the Liniers Cattle Market entrance and the statue of the Resero, the person that moves the cattle from corral to corral. Below, the corrals and a light-weight  steer corral.

We are going to visit JBS, Swift Armour outside Buenos Aires. JBS is the largest meat packing company in world, both for beef production and exports.

 

We are going to meet with the marketing and purchasing teams in the headquarters in order to discuss strategies in Argentina and the export markets. We are also going to visit their deboning facility, where they produce ground beef and thermo-processed  meat.

While in Buenos Aires, we will visit  multinational grain companies such as Cargill or Bunge, and AGD or Molinos Rio de la Plata. The first two are U.S. companies while the last two are  Argentine companies..

 

We will also visit a seed company such as Monsanto or Pioneer and a chemical company such as Dow Agrochemical or Syngenta.

 

On the picture in the right, the group before meeting with Cargill Argentina.

A picture of the group at the John Deere tractor parking complex. The tractors are, ready to be shipped to all the distributors countrywide.

We are going to visit the Rosario Board of Trade, the largest agricultural board of trade in Latin America.

 

We will discuss the difference between a cash and a futures market and the importance of price transmission and transparency in markets.

The John Deere plant in Argentina is located north of Rosario in Santa Fe province. This is one of the four plants that produces engines worldwide for John Deere.

 

This facility also hosts John Deere Argentina Headquarters and has large storage areas for combines, tractors, tillage equipment, harvest platforms, etc.

John Deere tractors are lined ready to be loaded into truck trailers for delivery.