Argentina in 2010 only exported 10% of the beef it produced, the lowest level since the foot and mouth disease crisis ten years ago.

According to the report production in 2010 fell 20.7% to 2.68 million metric tons. Exports fell 52.7% to 302,034 metric tons. Once the biggest exporter of beef in the world, Argentina now ranks tenth.

Paraguay passed Argentina exportation in 2010. as Uruguay had in 2009, according to a report by CICCRA ( Cámara de la Industria de la Carne). The report is quick to blame the executive branch of the Argentine government (ie. the president) for the decline in production.

Even domestic consumption fell 13.2%, to 2.38 million metric tons. This is significant since Argentines are the largest consumers of meat in the world.  In 2010 they were left with a measly 58.8 kilos of beef each.

CICCRA blames the government for the loss of 3,500 jobs in the meatpacking industry, and 4,600 independent farmers.  The report goes on to attack Julián Domínguez, the Minister of Agriculture, for not completing promises.

In case you haven’t heard, a US military plane recently landed in Argentina with training gear for Argentine Police Force. But it appears that some of the cargo wasn’t on the manifest. Argentina has seized the material and is demanding an apology from the US.

It seems some of the items in question are three satellite telephones, which are carried by the US secret forces wherever they go. In case of an emergency they can be used to speak with encrypted signals.

The US claims one of the phones was declared, but they did not know they had to itemize the number of phones. They have requested that the confiscated items be returned.

Argentina argues that the US military was trying to bring wiretapping devices into the country.

This isn’t the first time there has been controversy involving something showing up at the airport that wasn’t accounted for and Argentina. In 2007 a Venezuelan man was stopped at the Ezeiza airport with a briefcase that contained $800,000 in undeclared cash. The money was seized, but the man, Known commonly only as Antonio, was set allowed to pass through customs. A few days later he fled the country to Miami, where the US refused to extradite him for questioning in Argentina.

Antonio had claimed the money was for a political campaign and allegations surfaced that the money was for then presidential candidate Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Cristina immediately denied the accusations and blamed it on a smear campaign by the United States.

And in 2004 police at the airport in Madrid, Spain found 60 kilos of cocaine in unclaimed suitcases. The airline on which the suitcases had flown, Southern Winds, became the focal point of a scandal involving drug trafficking. A year later the airline went bankrupt.

And finally, just in January two pilots were arrested in Barcelona after 800 kilos of cocaine were found in their jet. One of the pilots was the son of a former Argentine Air Force chief.

The controversy over disputed inflation figures in Argentina continued Wednesday after the government threatened to impose economic sanctions on private consultants for disseminating reports with “inaccuracies or misleading errors”

Two weeks ago the government required consultants to submit explanations on how they analyze changes in consumer prices as their numbers almost triple the official figure for inflation. On Tuesday they warned they could be punished for breaking the law.

Firms could be fined for not respecting legislation that “prohibits state inaccuracies and misleading concealment, deception or confusion in respect of certain business issues to produce both the public and traders uncertainties in prices,” reported Economy Ministry sources.

The Government has rejected the independent figures and both President Cristina  and Economy Minister Amado Boudou avoid using the term inflation and talk of “distortion” and “dispersion” of prices and an “exploitation” of the situation by employers.

Measurements of private consulting firms have become more relevant since January 2007 when the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) introduced methodological changes in the official index of consumer prices.

In the past four years of intervention in the statistical agency, according to official estimates inflation has grown by 39 percent while private consultants  claim it to be 120%.

Last year, according to INDEC, inflation was 10.9 %, while private consultants say prices increased by around 25%.

Despite the government’s decision to publicly reject the private estimates, the official labor unions are guided by estimates of the consultants to set their demands for higher wages.

The Argentine government has requested assistance from the IMF to help create a new price index.