The Vaca Muerta mountain range is in a lost and inaccessible area of the province of Neuquén: a rock formation of 35,000 square kilometers in the heart of Argentine Patagonia that, for years, has lived for and for oil.
AND no wonder: The Vaca Muerta field is the second largest unconventional natural gas reserve in the world and the fourth largest unconventional oil reserve. In many ways, Argentina’s energy future passes through those rocks in the heart of the country.
The thing is that not everyone agrees. And this disagreement has made its way into one of the most competitive markets in the world: that of Spanish olive oil.
Sell chocolate to the Swiss. Today, SeNeu produces extra virgin olive oil in the heart of Vaca Muerta. It is a super-intensive trellis system (and arbequina and arbosana varieties) that is giving very good results. And that can be seen in what they are doing with EVOO.
Because, at first, they tried to market it with their own brand, but the truth is that the image of a premium oil from one of the country’s oil heartlands was not what the market was looking for. So, considering the quality of the product, they pivoted.
And now They export 40% of their production to Spain. Which, just before the trade agreement with Mercosur comes into force, is several hundred tons. But it will become much more. Argentina is already the fifth country that matters most to Spain and has something that its direct competitors (Tunisia or Portugal) do not have: they go against the season.
That is, being in the southern hemisphere, its harvest arrives just at the time when Mediterranean reserves are already consolidated. And that is a very important asset in a context in which the climate is unpredictable: there are historic droughts, as well as enormous rainfall.
Spain buys more oil than it seems…and his purpose is basically industrial: that is, adjust the profile, ensure supply, strengthen the link, provide regularity, etc. It is a perfect support to help the battered olive industry stay alive when things go wrong.
It is true that Argentina is a small producer (it only generates around 1% of world production), but it is a net exporter and, for a province like Neuquén, the window of opportunity is huge.
Spain is the great door to Europe. As is the case with many other products, regardless of Spain’s producing role (which changes, depending on the product we are talking about); The country is a marketing power at the European level and that makes its role within the international agri-food mechanism enormous.
Vaca Muerta oil is not only growing in the most intelligent way, it is making it clear that the future of the sector is more complicated than it seems.
Image | Kevin Martin Jose | Hector Ramon Perez
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