Day 11 - Speciality Crops

Today was yet another fun and adventurous day in the Santa Fe Province. We went to
two different locations about an hour south of Rosario: Argo Uranga and the AFA (Agricultores
Federados Argentinos).

Bailey and Celeste (the writers) with our popcorn!

Argo Uranga was a 12,000-hectare family farm that was established all the way back in
1857. Approximately 65% of the operation belongs to the Uranga family, and the rest is
managed by a corporation. The location of the estate was absolutely beautiful; they have
buildings and living quarters there that are still standing after 160 years. They produce typical
crops such as corn, soybeans, barley, wheat, etc., but they also are experts in growing specialty
crops like popcorn. We got the opportunity to see the actual popcorn crop in the field along with
their facility where they store, dry, and package popcorn, which was very fascinating to see. It
was interesting to learn that they export all of their popcorn to over 50 countries worldwide.

Popcorn plant

The other place we visited was an AFA facility that was built for farmers that want to
produce specialty crops such as popcorn, lentils, legumes, chickpeas, black beans, etc.
Essentially, the AFA is an enormous co-op for farmers across the region. They have

Specialty seeds at AFA

approximately 2,700 employees and 39,000 members. The AFA operates in nine provinces with a total of 26 main storage facilities. In particular, this one was very impressive because of the fact that they process specialty crops, which is what we are not used to seeing back in Iowa. Their automatic system has the ability to separate a specialty crop by density, color, and size. Like Argo Uranga, this AFA facility exports a majority of their product, but mainly to Brazil for the past four years.

For tonight, we have dinner plans with our host families to celebrate our last night here in
Argentina. Then tomorrow, we will have one last stop in the morning before we head to the airport.