After several days plagued by rumors, it was confirmed that the Secretary of Agriculture, Carlos Cheppi, resigned. The post will be taken up by Julian Dominguez, PJ Deputy of the Metropolitan area who would assume from Friday.

It was even learnt that the Secretariat may be converted to a Ministry to give it more hierarchy, with the aim of supporting the agriculture sector.

Despite the fact that Cheppi earned his removal for “personal reasons”, it is known that the decision was taken by the Kirchner couple.

During his tenure of about a year as a Secretary, Cheppi and Agriculture have suffered many cuts of their duties under the management of Guillermo Moreno and the present head of AFIP, Ricrado Echegaray.

“Whenever there are changes of officials there is a new outlook and predisposition. Julian Dominguez will surely work on the positive side of Cheppi and will double his efforts, like all of us who accede to a position who has been left by a colleague,” said Ariel Franetovic, Minister of Agricultural Affairs in the metropolitan area.

Meanwhile, the rural institutions were indifferent to the resignation:

“The resignation of someone who didn’t do much, doesn’t mean anything. Moreno and any institution, like Oncca which was practically managed by AFIP, have had more power than the very Secretariat, in reference to most fundamental issues for good or for bad” said sharply Alfred Bel, FAA’s official in Entre Rios.

He was also skeptical about the possibility of giving Agriculture the status of Ministry. “We have to wait, because there is Ministry of Production also who is not working,” he added.

Eduardo Buzzi, president of the Argentine Agricultural Federation, said: “Cheppi is a victim of this process, although he allowed for it to happen. The first issue is to restore the institutions of the Ministry of Agriculture (…) We are talking about the institutional power to define what the production and marketing policies are.

Their leaders understand that beyond the names, kirchnerism didn’t change his  confrontational attitude.That’s why they would promoting a protest in La Plata to oppose Daniel Scioli. In the lower house -with the vote of Dominguez-, yesterday there was a raise in the taxes that must be paid by the sector.

Cheppi’s appointment was accepted by the agriculture’s entities as they considered a good head and expert in the agricultural situtation.

However, he then had no consensus from the ruralists and his management faded.