This Saturday, September 17, the closing of the 117th edition of the International Livestock Exhibition, Agroindustrial and Commercial Exhibition, Expo Prado 2022 was held.
The event was attended by the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou, the Vice President, Beatriz Argimón, and government authorities, business union representatives and agricultural producers.
In this framework, Mattos assured that the sector is betting on “growth, technology and the training of its people and the achievements obtained spill over to other sectors.”
He compared the productive Uruguay during his tenure as union representative with the Uruguay of today, 17 years later. “We live in a very different reality, we see achievements and progress, but we also continue to face adverse situations worldwide.”
The Secretary of State said that for this year more than “14,500 million dollars of exports are projected, in total goods; and almost 11 billion of agro-industrial products, which will represent a historical record for the country”.
“It is enough to travel the routes to see a country in movement, that grows, in construction, and in full production. With intense economic activity that is reflected in the good numbers, with an increase in the employment rate and the reduction of special unemployment insurance that served in times of difficulty”, he pointed out.
The gold mesh is the leader
Mattos expressed that the “gold mesh, which some have understood or used in a derogatory manner, is the leader, it is part of a team that pulls other sectors forward.”
“Every time we receive missions from abroad, everyone expresses praise for our agricultural sector, highlighting the quality of our production and the policy that supports it,” he said.
He added: “We should be proud to have a gold mesh, because we are far from that concept that does not invest or does not use. The sector bets on growth, technology, the use of qualified labor and multiplies its genuine generation of wealth to other economic sectors, which benefit from its spillover”.
Mattos highlighted the record in the area of internal crops that will exceed “750 thousand hectares and its variety.” He said that wheat increased by 100,000 hectares, compared to the previous year, and producers achieved an “important harvest of summer crops, both soybeans and corn.”
In any case, there were difficulties for the farm, forestry and livestock, “due to the drought and the declaration of the agricultural emergency.”
Regarding winter crops, the president said that there is great diversification and high levels of production, achieving high yields.
“There are an additional 1,000 million for the productive sector in this period, but we must bear in mind that the climatic emergency, through drought, is a very incident factor, agricultural production is very vulnerable to climate change,” he remarked.
In this sense, he said that his Ministry is developing instruments and resources such as: “irrigation systems and adjustments in agricultural insurance.”
He highlighted the importance of links with the Middle East, since it offers essential inputs that Uruguay requires to produce, and they are areas of great purchasing power and low tariff protection.
He stressed that the government has arranged in the Rendering of Accounts, the expansion of spending by 226 million dollars by 2023, “this is the result of good administration and management of resources, of an austere management of the economy, but with deep sensitivity towards various sectors of society that will benefit”.
He pointed out that the government, through its public companies, seeks to have a “social and human view towards rurality”, and in this sense he pointed out that examples of this are: connectivity, MEVIR programs as ‘small great works’, rural electrification, and road plans”.
In another order, he referred to the great problem accumulated for decades in terms of “canine overpopulation”.
“The problem of canine overpopulation is going to take time, we are working on mass castrations, we have identified more than 70,000 animals and we are going to create capture teams, shelters and an adoption system under strict protocol,” he said.
