Argentina Tries to Reconcile Exporting Food With Prices at Home

But Fernández de Kirchner -- like many of the crop's detractors -- has criticized the high-tech soy industry for enriching corporate farmers, harming the environment and failing to create new jobs. She has said she wants to put the brakes on the expansion of soy-based products, which are not widely consumed by Argentines.

"That's impossible for us to do, because some farms that are good for growing soy, for example, are not good for growing another crop, like maize," said Juan Nelson, an Argentine farmer with several plots of land throughout the country. "Farmers are not going to suddenly change their cycles and start growing other crops there."

In a country that is the third-largest exporter of soy after the United States and Brazil, the turmoil over taxes resulted in a 50 percent decline in soybean processing in March. Argentina also blocked exports of wheat, hoping to avert shortages and price increases at home.

Although that step has exacerbated food supply pressures internationally, Fernández de Kirchner said protecting domestic supply is the best way to maintain Argentina's economic growth, which has averaged about 8 percent annually since her husband, former president Néstor Kirchner, took power in 2003.

But new studies suggest that food inflation has begun to outpace growth, resulting in the first increase in poverty figures since late 2002.

Independent economists say the government has whitewashed the effects of inflation since last year. Last month, the government canceled the publication of reports that would have measured changes in the country's poverty levels in 2007.

SEL, a Buenos Aires-based economic consulting firm, recently undertook an independent statistical analysis that showed Argentina's recent trend of poverty reduction reversed last year, with the percentage of Argentines living below the poverty line jumping from 26.9 percent to 30.3 percent.

The firm also reported this month that the government's methods of taming inflation by controlling agricultural production might be contributing to that reversal, said Ernesto Kritz, the director of SEL.

"The policy doesn't discriminate between poor consumers and rich consumers, and it actually favors the better-off," said Kritz.

Economy Minister Martin Lousteau reportedly clashed with Fernández de Kirchner this week over inflation control policies, and he resigned late Thursday.

The new minister, Carlos Fernández, suggested that he firmly supported the president's export tax increase in the face of continued pressure from the agricultural sector.

"With my appointment," Fernández told the Associated Press on Friday, "nothing is going to change."