Agriculture in Argentina

Agriculture is one of the bases of Argentina's economy. Argentine agriculture is relatively capital intensive, today providing about 7% of all employment, and, even during its period of dominance around 1900, accounting for no more than a third of all labor. Having accounted for nearly 20% of GDP as late as 1959, it adds, directly, less than 10% today. Agricultural goods, whether raw or processed earn over half of Argentina's foreign exchange and arguably remain an indispensable pillar of the country's social progress and economic prosperity. An estimated 10-15% of Argentine farmland is foreign owned. One fourth of Argentine exports of about US$86 billion in 2011 were composed of unprocessed agricultural primary goods, mainly soybeans, wheat and maize. A further one third were composed of processed agricultural products, such as animal feed, flour and vegetable oils. The national governmental organization in charge of overseeing agriculture is the Secretariat of Agriculture, Cattle Farming, Fishing and Food (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimentos, SAGPyA). Prior to the Columbian Exchange various native crops were under cultivation in the country. In the Araucaria Forest (today shared with Brazil) these included yerba mate, pineapple guava, Butia eriospatha, Bromelia antiacantha, and other Myrtaceae. Argentina is the largest producer in the world of yerba mate, one of the 5 largest producers in the world of soy, maize, sunflower seed, lemon and pear, one of the 10 largest producers in the world of barley, grape, artichoke, tobacco and cotton, and one of the 15 largest producers in the world of wheat, sugarcane, sorghum and grapefruit. In 2018, Argentina was the 4th largest producer of beef in the world, with a production of 3 million tons (behind only the USA, Brazil and China). It was also the 3rd largest producer of soy in the world, with 37.7 million tons produced (behind only the USA and Brazil); the 4th largest producer of maize in the world, with 43.