Cooperative Action

In La Pampa, the Secretariat of Cooperatives, an agency of the Ministry of Production, is the Local Competent Organization, which concurrently with the National Organization that registers, promotes and regulates domestic cooperative entities concurrently with the National Organization (INACYM). Through the Bureau of Cooperatives, the Secretariat develops a series of programs support, consolidate and strengthen the cooperative action, due to the important role the cooperatives play in the settlement of social, economic and cultural issues.
There are 119 registered cooperatives, with 125,000 members and 1,200 employees. In the last year the cooperatives collected approximately $90,000,000 for services like electricity, drinking water, communications, labor, commercialization of agricultural products, and social services like nursing, burials, niches, etc. This amount meant an estimated deployment of 310,000,000 kilowatt hours and 5,800,000 cubic square feet of water; 23,000 ambulatory services rendered; 1,400 burials; the industrialization of 17,000,000 liters of milk; the commercialization of 10,000 tons of honey, 200,000 tons of cereal, 50,000 cattle heads, and 3,500,000 liters of fuel; 4,000 insurance policies, etc.
Within the action taken, there were different programs launched some years ago, which are renewed every season and new initiatives are added according to the sector’s needs:
• Financial Aid. The Bureau of Cooperatives offers a Program called “Asistencia Crediticia a Entidades Solidarias” (Financial Aid to Cooperative Organizations), to leverage the production capacity of all cooperatives in La Pampa, with the aim to initiate, reactivate and develop the undertakings producing goods or rendering services.
There are also special credit lines agreed upon with the Banco de La Pampa (Bank of La Pampa) at rates subsidized by the provincial Government, for public utilities cooperatives, which are engaged in the installation of natural gas indoor connections and the rural electrification. Through these credit lines, the pampean Cooperatives could take loans for $1,400,000 to install natural gas indoor connections and $ 1,250,000 for rural electrification. Other going credit lines are:
- “Credit for Productive Microbusiness”, by an Agreement signed between La Pampa Province and the Federal Investment Board.
- “Credits for Small and Medium-sized Business”, by and Agreement signed between La Pampa Government, the Federal Investment Board, and Banco de La Pampa.
• Support Program for Productive Projects. Pursuant to Executive Order Nº 947/97, La Pampa’s Government offers this program to purchase capital goods and/or to use the money as working assets.
• Training. The Bureau of Cooperatives has also started a program specially intended for the training of the pampean entities’ personnel.
• Participation in Exhibitions. The Undersecretariat of Cooperatives together with the Bureau of Cooperatives and 9 pampean cooperatives participated in “Solidaria ’97 and ’98", “I and II Exposición de Cooperativas y Mutuales”, MERCOSUR - Argentina. This year they will also participate in “Expo Solidaria 2000”. Besides, during the last years they have participated in the Stand of the Ministry of Production, in the agricultural and industrial exhibitions held in the province and the “Expo Apícola “ in Doblas. In Internet: www.lapampa.gov.ar

Colorado River Aqueduct

La Pampa Province with an extention of 143.500 km.2, being in the most part an arid and semiarid climate zone, has a remarcable lack of permanent surface hydric resources, except on its south limit where the Colorado river flows. The potable water supply to the Province communities (about 300.000 inhabitants ) and the one used for other matters is obtained today from underground waters by means of pumps batteries yielding a relative low flow, often showing harmful ions excess such as fluorine and arsenic over the accepted limits for human consumption, and even excess of total salts . On the other hand, some communities with good quality phreatic waters have a limited water yield.
The complexity of the acquifer formations make the rational explotation of the underground resources extremely difficult, producing in many cases their salinization and in consequence the abandon of the perforations under explotion. Due to this situation the La Pampa Goverment has decided to definitely solve the potable water problem by the construction of an aqueduct system of about 1190 kms fed by the Colorado river waters, unique available surface water source,shared with other provinces,eradicating in this way all hydric diseases produced by the non-potable underground water consumption .
This aqueduct's net will allow the furnishing of potable water to populations, to cattle raising zones, to industries with wet processes and the irrigation of intensive growing species.
Halfway 1996 the La Pampa Govemment created thedblquote Comisión Técnica A cueducto del Rio Coloradodblquote ( COTARC ) that stands fordblquote Colorado River aqueductquote s technical commission dblquote depending of the dblquote Ministerio de Obras y Servicios Públicos dblquote . This new organism that took care of the whole project, managed to get the preliminary studies, bidding documents, proposals analysis and the awarding of the contract in a very short schedule. The works are today under construction.
The preliminary studies and designs were developed by the Project quote s Director and a staff of independent consultants hired for that specific task by the Province Govemment. The preliminary designs included the analysis of future water demand for differents uses ( ) in a wide period of 35 years between 2002 and 2037. Projection for those years demand were made to define the water volume to be supplied.
Two big altematives were analysed during this stage of preliminary designs : one using underground sources from hreatics water tables properly treated by inverse osmosis systems and the other one by diverting waters from the Colorado River in the south border line of the Province. From the economical analysis of the two basic alternatives, came out to be the most convenient to supply with the waters of the before mentioned net of aqueducts.
Thirteen differents altematives of aqueducts were analysed with different positions of the intakes along the Colorado River and the planimetrics situation of the pipes. The altemative called 3-E with the intake in the Pichi Mahuida zone was finally selected and is under construction. The works were priced,on a free tax basis,in about u$s183.000.000. The Federal Act N quote 24.805 issued for this project eliminated direct taxing of the wors. The contract actual price is 138.227.049, 82.
In order to get this waterwork financiated the La Pampa Governor, Dr. Rubén Hugo Marín, promoted and obtained an non - refundable loan from the Nation's Government with a value of 180.000.000 U$S, delivered in ten anual payements of 18.000.000 U$S each, starting in the year of 1998, all which has been properly legalized in the agreements.
Civilian Engineer Carlos Oppezzo Project's Director - www.cotarc.com.ar

Shield and Flag

The Official Shield of La Pampa Province is the symbol of individuality in the group of the Argentine federal provinces. The upper pane is blue and the lower one, green. The blue color means justice, perseverance, and loyalty, whereas the green stands for hope, hospitality, and courtesy. The rising sun represents the dawn of a new province that becomes a member of the extended Argentine family. The pampean lances, crossed behind the shield, recall the warlike spirit of the aborigine and the weapons with which he defended his territory. The wheat spikes, which surrounds the shield, speak about the fertility of the pampean lands; the caldén, our autochthonous tree, reminds us the vastness of plains, sparkled by fierce wilds and solitary bushes. The silhouette of the aborigine is a homage to the aboriginal race that lived in these lands and whose movement allowed the occupation, settlement, and incorporation of this region to the geographical, political, and economic community of the Argentine Republic. The blue and white ribbon that gathers the spikes, reminds us that we are part of the Argentine Nation, with the rights and duties that the federal system respectively entitles to and demands from the provinces.

Pursuant to Provincial Law 1513, enacted on November 18, 1993, the Chamber of Representatives of La Pampa Province approved the creation of the Flag of La Pampa Province. This flag is identical to the national one, with two horizontal light blue stripes and a white one in the middle, which holds the provincial shield.

Production and Foreign Trade

• Overview: along the time, La Pampa Province still maintains the same foreign trade structure, mainly based on the export of commodities of low added value, basically grains (wheat, maize, and sorghum), oil-seeds (sunflower) and agroindustrial products like meat, oil, and wheat flour, among others.
In general, this kind of exports maintain the same trend showed at national levels, and are directly affected by the different factors international markets are subject to: prices, climate conditions, and the contribution of technology to production.
Within this context, pampean exports decreased during 1999 12 % with respect to 1998, amounting to $ 163.7 millions in ’99, as compared to the $ 186 millions of ’98. This slump has its counterpart in national exports, where the downturn reached 12 %; this is $ 26,441 millions in 1998 and $ 23,318 millions in 1999.

• Ratios by export lines: among the most important exportable lines, we should mention a sharp increase of 44 % in Honey production and a decrease of 8 % in grains and oil-seeds, agricultural products (20 %), industrial products (9 %) and Meat (50%).

Note: the last item (Meat) shows a sharp slump in the export figures of 1999 with respect to 1998, which can be explained by the new methodology to record bovine exports, an amount calculated according to on-the-hoof cattle that exited the province with an export certificate. As from 1999, this data will be part of an informative exhibit to stress the importance of La Pampa province as a supplier of for-export beef.

• Export distribution: the most important pampean sector of foreign trade during 1999 was still the primary and agroindustrial production, whose relative sharing in the total amounts to 93 %. In this sector we can mention Grains and Oil-seeds, 67 %; Beef and hare meat, 8%; Honey, 10 %; and Oil, 7 %.

• Oil exports: during the last ten years, there was some decrease in the volumes extracted of crude oil allocated to foreign markets. Although we had two years in a row with decreases, crude oil maintains a relatively important position within the pampean foreign trade, since with $ 12.2 millions for 1999, it had a percentage sharing of 7 % over the export total.

• Meat exports: meat processing plants of La Pampa Province are in a retrofitting stage, streamlining them to serve foreign markets’ standards, as there is a great likelihood of sustained development.
At present, there is only one plant carrying out exports of beef. The plant is authorized to export almost worldwide, as it is well known for selling to demanding markets like Europe, USA, and the ones located in the southwest of Asia. Export are made on the basis of a quota to conduct exports of Hilton cuts. Hare meat is already a traditional product in the provincial exports. There is only one company shipping almost its total production to the European Union.

• Indirect exports: almost the total production of honey is indirectly traded with foreign countries. Figures are estimated in terms of the annual production of honey, the export market values, and piggyback exports.

• La Pampa Province - Direct exports for 1999 by company:
- Alpargatas Calzados S.A.: $ 585,700 in sport shoe, to Uruguay, Bolivia, and Brazil.
- Ascheri & Cía. S.A.C.I.A.: $ 3,100 in cylinders and spare parts, manual pumps, floating valves, and pumps, to Uruguay.
- Carnes Pampeanas: $ 12,000,000 in cooled beef, to European Union, Chile, USA, Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, and Switzerland.
- Compañía Industrial Progreso S.A.: $ 19,375 in special salts, to Uruguay.
- Trigalia S.A.: 000 flour, to Bolivia and Brazil.
- Vizental & Cía. S.A.C.I.A.: $ 1,852,932 in hares, to Italy and Germany.
- Oil for $ 12,200,000 in crude oil to different destinations.

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