Although the progress accomplished was so rapid, it was not effected without certain misunderstandings, caused by excessive production. At the end of the sugar crisis of 1896-7, which occasioned the closing of a number of factories, attempts were made to regulate the industry, at the instance of the leading makers. To-day there is a syndicate which regulates production within the limits of exportation and production, and serves as a sales agency for all the factories.
The sugar industry of Tucuman has the advantage as part of its equipment the Rosario refinery, which receives the raw sugar of Tucuman and subjects it to the various processes of crystallisation and bleaching. Its output during the agricultural year 1906-7 was 107,621,800 lb. of refined sugar; during the year 1907-1908 it was 120,552,220 lb.
Flour-milling.—Flour-milling has had much the same history as the sugar industry. Although the industry was established in the Argentine as early as the sixteenth century, it has only been properly developed during the last twenty years. Before this period the Argentine was supplied partly from Chili, as its power of production had not kept pace with its population. To-day the situation has been completely transformed, since the enormous development of agriculture; not only does the flour produced suffice for the country, but since 1878 an export trade has sprung up, amounting to 39,000 tons in 1902, 72,000 in 1903, 107,000 in 1904, 144,700 in 1905, 129,000 in 1906, and 127,000 in 1907. Brazil is the Argentine’s best customer for flour, having imported 84,000 tons in 1904, 103,000 in 1905, 114,000 in 1906, and 118,300 in 1907.
Great Britain was the second-best customer for flour, having imported 14,800 tons in 1904, 24,400 in 1905, 5400 in 1906, and 1200 in 1907; to-day the exportation is negligible.
It is estimated that there are 600 or 700 flour-mills in the Argentine, representing a capital of from £2,200,000 to £2,640,000. Buenos Ayres has two, which have been lately installed on American models. They are situated on land belonging to Madero Harbour, and comprise a fine and powerful equipment, with grain-elevators, silos, and granaries. One is the property of the Belgian Steam Flour-mills Company, and has a capacity of from 12,000 to 14,000 tons. The other,
with a capacity of 80,000 tons, was built by the efforts of two great railway companies, the Buenos-Ayres Rosario and the Central Argentine. We have seen that no less important installations are shortly to be built at Rosario, by the French company which holds the harbour concession.
The Refrigerating Industry.—Among all the Argentine industries the most important is that of chilling or freezing meat and other foodstuffs. It is gradually replacing, in the export markets, the salt meat or saladeros industry, which formerly was the only industry in the country dependent upon stock-raising. The latter industry is carried on principally in Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Entre Rios, and Corrientès.
The principal refrigerating establishments are the following:—
The Sansinena Frozen Meat Co., with a capital of £600,000, and the warehouses known as La Negra, at Buenos Ayres and Bahia Blanca, in the quarter known as Cuatreros.
The River Plate Fresh Meat Co., with a capital of £453,600, whose warehouses are in the Province of Buenos Ayres.