“Tierra del Fuego isn’t the most obvious place to look for clues about how rapidly Argentina is changing. Yet the country’s southernmost and least populated province has just pulled off a sharp policy U-turn that hints at a much broader national shift.
Earlier this month, the local legislature overturned a 2021 law that had banned all salmon farming in Tierra del Fuego, reopening the door to an industry that until recently was deemed off limits. Environmental concerns had driven the original ban, making Argentina the first country in the world to effectively prohibit intensive open-net salmon farming to protect its marine ecosystems. Yet the economics were always awkward: Argentina imports almost all the salmon it consumes from neighboring Chile, which embraced the industry decades ago and has since become the world’s second-largest producer, with annual exports exceeding $6 billion. A familiar Argentine missed opportunity.
The ban rollback reflects the shift in political winds under President Javier Milei — and a recalibration of the production-versus-environment tradeoff. The libertarian leader’s pro-business, deregulation-first agenda is pushing long-frozen projects back onto the table. In Mendoza, a province better known for its world-class wines and sweeping Andes views, a copper project rejected 14 years ago on environmental grounds is regaining political momentum. Big mining is now betting on Argentina’s vast untapped reserves as the next frontier in the global race to secure critical minerals. This comes on top of record oil production from the Vaca Muerta shale patch in the country’s south, where deal-making has surged since Milei took office.
What’s happened in Tierra del Fuego isn’t just about salmon. It’s about a country reassessing where ideology ends and economic realism begins. After more than a decade of stagnant growth, virtually no private-sector job creation, and policy distortions that pushed Argentina to the brink of hyperinflation in late 2023, the country is reclaiming a sense of economic rationality.”
From Bloomberg.
