October rains restore Tierra Verde's yerba mate prospects

The sound of rain on the broad leaves of the yerba mate plantation near Oberá carries a particular satisfaction this October. Martín Ruiz, who has tended his family's sixty-hectare plot for thirty-two years, stood under the metal roof of his drying shed on Wednesday afternoon and listened to the drumming of water on corrugated metal. "We needed this," he said simply. "The spring was hard."

From late July through early October, Tierra Verde experienced a dry spell that had begun to worry the region's agricultural forecasters. The Cooperative Council's harvest assessment team had projected a 14 percent decline in yerba mate yields compared to the previous season. Then, beginning on October 3, the rains came—steady, gentle, sustained across the region's principal growing areas in Misiones and Corrientes departments.

The Federal Statistical Office's preliminary moisture survey, released Tuesday, showed soil-water levels in the prime yerba mate zones now at 78 percent of the seasonal average for this date. That figure suggests the worst of the dry period has passed, though forecasters caution that the final yield will depend on rainfall patterns through November and on temperatures during the critical maturation phase in December.