2024-02-21 09:32:07
Unlike small and medium-sized national companies, which face barriers to importing inputs due to the lack of foreign currency, trade liberalization is beginning to fill the shelves of supermarkets that import goods at a lower cost through large distributors.
The problem that puts the future of SMEs and jobs at risk was raised by Daniel Rosato, head of Industriales Pymes Argentina (IPA) in the presentation of the report “SMEs in the Argentine productive structure”.
Among the factors that began to create an “SME crisis” the industrial leader pointed to the fall in consumption in a context of high inflation, lack of export incentives and the opening of imports, which is already being reflected in the loss of employment.
In this scenario, “a greater supply of imported products on supermarket shelves became a time bomb,” said Rosato and said that, among a wide variety of Chinese products, lactal bread from Brazil was detected; snacks from Paraguay and tableware from France.
“All goods that are manufactured normally in Argentina,” he noted, adding that “in contrast, the plastic sector registered a 50% drop in production and is practically paralyzed.”
The concern extends to the textile, footwear, furniture, cleaning manufacturing activity and to suppliers of the household appliance and automotive industry, where technical stoppages and vacations were anticipated.
“The entry of finished products that businessmen negotiate today on trips abroad will be reflected in the months of May and June,” said Rosato and asked the Government for anti-dumping measures so that SMEs are sustainable. “In the great countries of the world, freedom has limits,” he added.
The weight of SMEs
Rosato presented the reissue of the IPA Observatory, a space that produces reports with statistics and economic analysis of the variables that affect the world of small and medium-sized industries, and which will be led by the director of the consulting firm Marca Pyme, Pablo Bercovich, and its Macroeconomic manager, Martín Kalos.
Daniel Rosato, head of IPA: “In the great countries of the world, freedom has limits”
The report showed an initial snapshot of the status of SMEs as of last December, where it indicated that in Argentina there are a total of 547,970 companies, of which 536,076 are SMEs (97.8%) and 11,894 companies are large (2 .2% remaining).
After highlighting the weight of the SME matrix in Argentina’s productive structure, Bercovich warned about a drop in manufacturing activity of 12% year-on-year (December 2023) while the use of installed capacity fell to 54%. “This is the lowest number in recent decades, worse than the 2001 crisis,” he noted. This data reflects an “uncertain” future for economic activity.
Along these lines, Kalos added that in the second quarter of 2023 a record was achieved in the number of registered SMEs; “The last quarter was clearly contractionary and the measures of (Javier) Milei’s government put us in a clear and lasting recession that is putting the entire SME network at risk.”
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