After more than 50 years, Argentina had to buy millions of kilos of yerba mate from Brazil and Paraguay

After more than 50 years, Argentina had to import yerba mate in large quantities to producers in Brazil and Paraguay. This is 10 percent of what was consumed in the domestic market and what was exported. According to La Nación, the figure represents an unusual number since it is a market that has always been self-sufficient. It so happens that in 2020, the Argentine yerba mate industry found itself with a very accentuated shortage of raw material stock and had to import millions of kilos of yerba mate canchada. "In total 31 million kilos were imported last year, equivalent to 10% of what was sold to the internal and external market," confirmed Juan José Szychowski, head of the National Institute of Yerba Mate. The number represents an increase of 900 percent compared to 2019, which had already been the year with the highest imports of yerba mate since 2002. "There was a decline in crops in 2018 and 2019 due to excessive rains, also droughts," explained Renzo Klimiuk, a tealero ...