Registry Delays Lock Hundreds of Tierra Verde Farms Out of Federal Market

The Federal Office for Cooperative Affairs has accumulated a registry backlog of nearly eight hundred applications, according to documents obtained by the Herald. Farmers in Tierra Verde seeking to register their plots and gain access to the federal guaranteed-price schemes for coffee and yerba mate are waiting an average of four to six months for confirmation—a delay that has cost some households thousands of florins in lost market access.

The backlog is concentrated in the smaller municipalities outside San Vicente, where cooperative membership has grown faster than federal processing capacity. Smallholders who cannot prove registered title remain ineligible for the federal schemes, forcing them to sell through local intermediaries at lower prices or hold their harvest until confirmation arrives.

Governor Lucía Báez said this week that the Tierra Verde Assembly has formally requested additional federal staff and a timeline for clearing the queue. The federal office has not yet responded to the request.