BUENOS AIRES—Argentine farmers angry over soy export taxes manned roadblocks Monday as the government tried to end a 19-day strike that has emptied meat counters, disrupted trade and set off a political crisis.
Argentina's four biggest agriculture groups renewed their nationwide strike over the weekend, after talks with the government broke down, holding back beef and grains from market as food shortages worsened.
The government was expected to announce later Monday a package of measures aimed at defusing the crisis by easing the tax burden on small-scale farmers in the country, a leading global supplier of soybeans, corn, wheat and beef.
To ensure international trucking traffic flowed, the government deployed border police to a key highway in Entre Rios province, which borders Uruguay.
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is facing her stiffest political crisis since taking office in December as farmers challenge a center-left economic model which has fueled rapid growth in recent years but imposed export bans and price controls on some farm products.
The roadblocks have paralyzed grains exports, raising concern in key buyers such as China and Europe. Ships are standing idle in ports and soy crushers are almost without stock.
Farmers had been expected to meet with government officials Monday but it wasn't clear whether the talks would take place as Fernandez had conditioned negotiations on an end to the strike.
"There were indications that today there was going to be a meeting. We're waiting for them to confirm the time," Silvio Corti, director of the Agrarian Federation, told Reuters.
"We know the government is working on some announcements, basically to help small farmers recover their profitability. But we don't know if they'll be enough."
Fernandez canceled a planned trip to London this week and will make her third speech about the farmers' strike later Monday, local media reported.
Meat Supplies Hit
Meat counters and coolers in Buenos Aires were thinly stocked over the weekend and some shoppers complained prices were rising.
Argentines are the world's biggest beef eaters with the average person eating nearly 152 pounds last year.
Housewife Angelica Taboa, 30, said she went to several supermarkets and butcher shops over the weekend before deciding to forgo buying beef altogether because prices were too high.
"We ended up buying lentils and cooked them with potatoes and carrots," she said.
The farmers are protesting a sliding-scale tax that replaced a fixed tax of 35 percent and boosted levies on soy bean exports to 44 percent at current prices. Taxes also rose on soy derivatives exports. They say the higher tax would harm smaller farmers.
But Fernandez has said the move is aimed at taming rising domestic food prices and redistributing wealth in country that was wracked by a deep economic crisis in 2001-02.
Farmers planned to keep up their protests through Wednesday, although one strike leader suggested plans could change once the government proposal is known.
"It depends on whether what they announce is good," said Eduardo Buzzi, the president of the FAA. "The people blocking the roads aren't going to accept just anything."
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