“Producing wholesome meals at honest costs is meals sovereignty”.
The Unión de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Tierra (UTT) launched the “Corredor Patagónico Soberano”, a 4500-kilometre route during which a truck distributes wholesome meals in Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Negro, Río Negro and Chubut. They handle to cut back transport prices for producers and produce meals at reasonably priced costs to customers.
By Mariángeles Guerrero/El Tierra Viva Company
The Unión de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Tierra (UTT) launched the “Sovereign Patagonian Hall”: with a truck they journey a circuit of 4,500 kilometers via Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Neuquén, Negro, Río Negro and Chubut to market cooperative meals at honest costs in dozens of localities. That is the second hall of its variety – an identical expertise was inaugurated within the Northeast in 2021. The purpose is to reduce transport and middleman prices with a view to carry foodstuffs nearer to well-liked sectors at honest and accessible costs.
Agustín Mavar is a small livestock farmer from Las Golondrinas, Lago Puelo, and is without doubt one of the passengers within the meals truck. “The concept of the Hall arose from the necessity to break with the monopoly of the concentrated and speculative commercialization sector that units costs and circumstances for the commercialization of meals typically”, he explains.
Promoted by the UTT, the expertise of enhancing transport circumstances and lowering logistics prices has been in operation in Patagonia for a number of years, however with personal freight, which is used to partialise the cargoes,” says Mavar. It was then that they evaluated tips on how to enhance this circuit. “We lacked a leg to face on, which was our personal freight,” says the producer.
By way of collective work and battle, the group purchased a refrigerated truck with a capability of 14,000 kilos. The automobile left Buenos Aires with dry meals and made stops in several localities the place it unloaded items, but additionally charged native meals to distribute within the following Patagonian stops. “Producing wholesome meals at honest costs and masking the method from finish to finish is meals sovereignty, it’s reaching the territories in a novel manner. As a result of, in any other case, there are locations that can’t be reached”, Mavar says.
Mariana Chaves, delegate from Neuquén and member of the Nationwide Coordination of the UTT, explains that “the manufacturing and logistics of our group is on the service of the individuals and the territories, from a federal perspective. The purpose is to proceed increasing the distribution of wholesome meals, at honest costs, lowering the carbon footprint”. In numerous Patagonian localities, not solely manufacturing takes place, but additionally collective purchases are organized inside the framework of the Hall.
In 2021, the UTT inaugurated the Mesopotamian Hall, which connects Entre Rios, Corrientes and Misiones. One other hall will quickly be launched within the Cordillera area, between La Rioja and Chubut.
Truck on the transfer
The Hall makes it doable for cooperative foodstuffs to reach at honest costs, lowering logistics prices and thus the ultimate worth of meals. For Juan Pablo Acosta, UTT consultant in Chubut, that is “a elementary step that strengthens regional economies and consolidates brief advertising and marketing channels”.
His colleague Mavar provides: “In an Argentina with starvation, it’s important to deepen these actions the place meals is taken into account a proper and never a commodity”.
The Sovereign Patagonian Hall circuit reaches eleven cities: Santa Rosa (La Pampa); Junín de Los Andes, Centenario (Neuquén); Maquinchao, Bariloche, El Bolsón, orquinco (Negro); El Hoyo, Esquel, Comodoro Rivadavia and Puerto Madryn (Chubut).
The truck left Avellaneda, within the province of Buenos Aires, from the UTT cooperative wholesale market. The subsequent cease was the Buenos Aires city of Domselaar (San Vicente), the place the balanced feed was charged. There, the itinerary to Santa Rosa (La Pampa) started. Within the provincial capital, the majority of the animal feed and cooperative feed was unloaded.
In Junín de los Andes (Neuquén), garlic and honey have been collected from native producers and merchandise from a neighborhood buy by native individuals have been unloaded. Within the metropolis of Neuquén, agro-ecological pears and apples from small producers have been loaded.
Within the cities of Río Negro and Chubut, yerba mate, flour, oil, noodles, rice and polenta have been unloaded to provide neighborhood purchases of organized neighbors. On collective purchases, Mavar factors out: “Once you do the maths and begin to consider who units the costs and why issues are price what they’re price, it’s when customers additionally begin to play a number one function within the course of and perceive what is going on. That is what we imply by shopping for consciously”.
On the return route, the onions produced on the UTT Node in Pedro Luro, within the south of the province of Buenos Aires, are charged to the freight to take them to the purpose of origin: Avellaneda.
“It advantages us as a result of the inputs arrive at a decrease value”.
rika Benavente is a producer of agroecological sweets in El Hoyo. To make them, she makes use of native fruits that she grows herself, corresponding to strawberries, raspberries and currants. She works in Puerto Patriada, an space she defines as “vacationer and timber”, collectively together with her husband and two of her kids. She says that she has all the time lived within the space and that the roles there are “momentary”. In summer season they work with tourism and in winter with wooden.
Benavente is a purchaser and vendor of the meals that the truck transports. “The hall advantages us as a result of the inputs arrive at a decrease value, it is a crucial assist for rural areas,” she says. And he or she provides: “What we produce is shipped to different locations and that strikes the native financial system, which is all the time very quiet in winter”. The producer is without doubt one of the 220 farming households that take part within the UTT within the Patagonian space.
She affirms that the hall “improves the provision of rural areas and reduces prices”. And he or she provides: “Right here the distances are very lengthy, we do not exit each day to buy. When you exit, it’s a must to make your procuring repay. Within the lorry you should buy a packet of yerba at a a lot better worth than what you get per kilo”.
Picture: UTT Press
Sovereign Patagonian Hall: a collective technique to make meals reasonably priced
Mavar is evident: “We do not speculate with freight; we’re not a logistics and advertising and marketing firm. We’re a company of producers who have to market in a good manner. On this manner we present that lowering costs is feasible and that’s the reason we’re asking for public insurance policies for the sector”.
Through the cease in Junín de los Andes, he says: “In entrance of me I’ve a crate of courgettes coming from Salta and a crate of tomatoes from Jujuy. The tomatoes we usher in are cheaper than these bought right here within the conventional market. It is because, regardless of the distances, by shortening the commercialization chain we’re displaying that this honest circuit is feasible”.
Mavar proposes “discussing and placing on the desk who units the costs and the way they’re constructed”. And he provides: “We must be a part of the method as a result of we’re those who produce greater than 60 per cent of what Argentinians devour”.
The unique article could be discovered right here