Brazil & Southern Cone - October 2013 (ISSN 1741-4431)

According to Uruguay’s President José Mujica, the country is facing an imminent “catastrophe” if the price of Yerba Mate (Ilex paraguariensis), the main ingredient in the widely consumed Mate tea, continues to increase in coming months. Although Mate is Uruguay’s national drink and the country is the world’s largest consumer by population - 80% of the country’s 3.2m inhabitants describe themselves as avid Mate drinkers, consuming on average 9kgs of Yerba Mate each a year - Yerba Mate does not naturally grow in most of Uruguay and the country has no large scale plantations. As a result Uruguay is completely dependent on Yerba imports from neighbouring Brazil and Argentina.

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