The warehouse is dark, the machines are off and boxes of stranded goods pile up. The Kioshi shoe factory, which had 120 employees in 2023, today has just 14. The scenario has become a symbol of the crisis faced by the Argentine industry and fuels the debate about President Javier Milei's model.
While the ultraliberal president's government highlights the drop in inflation and the deregulation of the economy, businesspeople warn about the loss of jobs, unfair competition and the decline in consumption.
"The domestic market is dead, people don't have money to consume, they are unlikely to buy shoes", says Emmanuel Fernández, director of Kioshi, located in Esteban Echeverría, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Added to this is an "import avalanche", he adds.
Last week, the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) called for measures in the face of economic opening and the loss of approximately 90 thousand jobs in industry since August 2023.
In June, Argentine industry operated with around 40% idle capacity. Manufacturing production fell 5% between June and July, the biggest decline in 16 months, according to official data released on Tuesday (8).
On the same day that the industrial sector presented its demand, the ultra-liberal president stated that his policy of austerity and deregulation is "non-negotiable".
Since Milei took office, in December 2023, around 30 thousand companies have closed their doors, according to sector data.
The president claims that jobs lost in one sector will be created in others, capable of competing internationally.
But, for Emmanuel Fernández, the government is "in a bubble", as "all we see is that people who are left without jobs go to work on applications".
From factory to Uber
In Zárate, an industrial city 90 km from Buenos Aires, Miguel Márquez looks sadly at the gate of the Clariant chemical products factory, where he worked for 20 years, until the unit closed in 2025.
Grass grows between the cement slabs of the empty parking lot. You can no longer hear the noise of the machines, only the birdsong.
Márquez says that only two of the 42 fired managed to get formal employment. The rest, like him, now 62 years old, survive on informal jobs, such as driving for apps.
Clariant manufactured inputs for the oil industry during the heyday of the Vaca Muerta deposit, but decided to start importing products from its factory in Brazil and close its operation in Argentina.
"As they don't have any restrictions, it suits them to bring it from Brazil," explained Márquez.
The Argentine economy grew in 2025, driven by hydrocarbons, mining and agribusiness. But the decline in commerce and industry affects large cities, where the majority of the population lives.
Since 2023, Argentina has lost more than 240 thousand formal jobs in the private sector.
Competition
After the UIA's claim, Economy Minister Luis Caputo stated that his role is to "defend the interests of 48 million Argentines, not certain businesspeople."
"It seems immoral and unfair to me that Argentines have to pay for lower quality goods two, four, ten times their value", he highlighted, in defense of the opening.
But industry entrepreneurs say the scenario is unfavorable.
"Nobody wants not to compete, but you also have to be able to compete," Alejandro Mayer, vice-president of the Ernesto Mayer circuit factory, on the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires, told AFP, today with half of its machines turned off.
Mayer highlights that there is an "exchange rate delay" that makes local products more expensive in dollars. Added to this are high interest rates on credit and a tax burden that, according to him, prevents competition with products from countries like China, although the efficiency is similar.
Milei reduced inflation, which was in three digits when he assumed the Presidency, to 33.8% year-on-year in July, one of the main economic results claimed by his government.
But "the economy cannot be measured only by the evolution of inflation, we have to look at activity", said the president of the UIA, Martín Rappallini.
In addition to competition from imported products, industry entrepreneurs point out the fragility of consumption.
A few blocks from Mayer, the Martin Blust instrument string factory, which employs ten people, closes on Fridays due to a lack of orders. "There is no inflation because there are no purchases", says his partner, Gloria Aparicio.
According to several surveys, employment and wages surpassed inflation as the main concern of Argentines, a warning sign for Milei, who will seek re-election in 2027.
At Kioshi, Fernández witnesses this anguish. Your employees ask for salary advances to pay for transportation to the factory.
They are "frustrated and angry", he says. And this “can be seen at will and can also be seen on the street”.
