"The area is going through a very good time," assures the producer from Tres Arroyos, José Cadenas, who foresees a great campaign.

One out of every two tons of Argentine barley for beer is produced in the southeastern Buenos Aires province. The reasons are not only climatic but also economic: the entire commercialization and processing circuit is installed there, managed by the most important company at the national level, Cervecería y Maltería Quilmes. Such is the importance of that area that it is estimated that 25% of the barley that the company buys globally is produced there. "The secret is that we have good weather, quite cold, which is what it needs to grow, and with less water, because it is a dryland crop," explained José Cadenas, a producer and rural leader from Tres Arroyos who says he has been making barley "the old-fashioned way," just as his grandfather and father taught him. But, apart from these comparative advantages, the truth is that this has been a very good year for the fine crop, especially in that region, which expects to show good numbers at the end of the harvest and recover from what ...