The president of Maizar recognized “key steps” by the Government, but asked to accelerate the reduction of withholdings

This was indicated by Zerboni in his opening speech at the Maizar Congress 2026which is taking place in Buenos Aires. To this he added his request for a reduction in the tax pressure of provinces and municipalities and the need to generate greater added value in the chainwith the approval of a new biofuels law, among other points.

During his presentation, which occurred before the Minister of the Interior, Diegoo Santilliand the Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Sergio Iraetatake the floor, Zerboni assured that “the world is used to seeing us waste opportunities as if we didn’t see them or didn’t value them.” For this reason, he stressed that “the question that calls us together today is, are we all going to get on the train or are some of us going to see it pass by once again?”

In this sense, the head of the corn chain stressed that the sector “cannot continue listening to the phrase that says ‘we have to wait two years to see what happens in the next election’. Thus there is no sustainable investment, there is no future.”

Zerboni acknowledged that the Government “is taking key steps” such as the unification of the exchange rate, fiscal balance, the promotion of investments through RIGI and RIMI, and the elimination of suffocating bureaucratic obstacles and export quotas, in terms of export duties.

But, regarding withholdings, although he valued the recent reduction of two points in wheat and barley and the presentation of a scheme of gradual cuts for the rest of the crops by 2027, where corn would have quarterly reductions to reach one percentage point in one year, he considered that “the process would have to be faster.”

“Although this is the right path, we need to accelerate that schedule to be able to reach zero withholdings in the shortest time possible and for this to be by law. We hope that the improvement in fiscal accounts will allow this,” said the head of Maizar.

At the same time, he stated that “a fiscal consensus between the Nation, provinces and municipalities is essential”, since “it cannot be that each point of reduction in withholdings is taken away by increases in rural real estate taxes or in municipal rates that do not provide any service.”

Regarding production, Zerboni considered that Argentina is still far from reaching its potential in the corn chain and, in this sense, he noted that the sector’s responsibility is not only to produce more grains, but “transform them into meat, dairy, eggs, ethanol, and hundreds of inputs used by the most varied industries”.

“That is why we are going to work to approve in Parliament a modern biofuel law and laws that allow us to industrialize more at origin, generating development and roots in the interior of the country, exporting much more added value with Argentine labor,” he concluded.

For his part, the president of this edition of the Maizar Congress, Ramiro Costahighlighted the importance of the corn chain, and maintained that “for many years we talked about potential, and corn is one of the crops that best represented that: productive, technological, industrial, export, and scientific potential. The discussion is no longer about proving that we can, because we have already done it. We are not talking about the theory, because this year we are exceeding 60 million tons. That is why the challenge is to aim for more, to achieve different results.”

In this regard, he assured: “We are convinced that we can generate more employment and investments, local transformation, more exports with roots and local development, because when we talk about corn or soybean crops, we talk about meat, milk, eggs, biofuels, machinery, crop protection, the food industry, science and technology. Therefore, “Corn and sorghum represent activities with the possibility of integrating both production and innovation, industry and federal development”.