Drought Cuts Deep Into Tierra Verde's Yerba Mate Belt

The rains that should have arrived in late June never came to the valleys south of San Vicente. Instead, a hot wind has dried the soil across Tierra Verde's yerba mate growing belt, and farmers who depend on the federal cooperative price floor are watching their plants stress and their harvest windows narrow.

At the Cooperative Council in San Vicente, the registrar reported that three member-farms have already filed for temporary hardship relief—the first cluster of such requests since the 2022 frost. The council meets Thursday to decide whether to recommend a federal subsidy top-up to the Civic Affairs Ministry.

The drought also exposes a deeper tension: the federal exchange rate for yerba mate has not moved in four months, even as shipping costs from Oriente Moderno's port have crept upward. Farmers say the fixed price no longer accounts for the real cost of getting their crop to market.