Paper short abstract:

I seek to challenge the category of "producer" used by tobacco entrepreneurs in northern Argentina, highlighting the relevance of land to its definition and the traditionals features of local entrepreneurs that come up against a category that claims to be "modern" and international.

Paper long abstract:

Fabio, a tobacco owner-manager, politician and head of the biggest association of tobacco entrepreneurs, defines himself as a "producer". This category defines the person who commercializes tobacco, highlighting the recent interweaving of the agricultural and industrial sectors and the value given to administrative and managerial tasks in the trade, which is far from the imaginary of peasant agricultural work. This category erases the parameter of land and wealth, obscuring the differentiation between tenant-producers and owner-producers.

In Argentina, the extension of the intensive agricultural model does not imply the substitution of local and traditional models of labor exploitation, nor the total replacement of locals by employees of foreign capital. On the contrary, technical modernity is not reflected locally in the creation of a stable labor market, nor in the erasure of the elites historically associated with agricultural production. Farm labourers continue to work in precarious conditions, while the traditional elites succeed in renewing their economic status.

It is therefore necessary to pay attention to the continuities and renewals of "producers" in a relational approach, seeking to escape from a homogeneous categorization and making visible localized relational logics. In the case of Salta, the structuring of support policies and producers' associations has mainly served the traditional elite to renew their position of power. Thus, the homogenization proposed by the notion of "producers" invites us both to make visible the blind spots in the sociological profile of this group, while reflecting on the reasons behind its use by certain actors.