Meet Argentine Customs Procedures - Day 2

Day 2 - Friday, October 10th, 2014

End of the AFIP clave fiscal queue at 8am

AFIP open their doors at 8.30 am. We are getting up at 7 to get there early. We arrive at 8 am. The queue of people leads from the (not yet opened) entrance doors along the whole block around the corner and further down half the block. All these guys are just here to take their number to get their clave fiscal at some point in time during the day. Resourceful Argentines are setting up their business selling mate and coffee from (what I would guess to be a stolen) shopping cart right next to the AFIP entrance. I slightly doubt that these guys have their clave fiscal category 3 that they need for their income from independent services to be taxed correctly. I refrain from asking them. Around 8.50 am it is our turn to take our number. The "offices" are packed. Our number: C50 (equals 350). A quick check of the monitor (via which the different numbers are called) reveals, that it takes about ten minutes to process ten claves fiscales. My mathematical mastermind brain tells me, that this means that there is empirical evidence that they need 1 minute per clave fiscal on average. Hence estimated time of processing number C50 would be about 350 minutes/6hrs later. We assume, that it might be our turn around noon. No sense sitting here waiting for 350 minutes. We decide to go home. But certainly not before taking a second number. If - by any unforeseen circumstances - we are missing the call for C50 we now have a second number: D24 (Yay!).

AFIP entrance around 9am; ad-hoc shopping cart coffee stand in the middle

AFIP offices around 9am

At home we are going for our "elevenses" with Argentine facturas y criollitos de hojaldre. At around 10.30 am we decide to go back to AFIP to just have a quick glance at the monitor and check the validity of our former statistical assessment. On our arrival none of the 500 numbers are left. All of them are taken. The "offices" are packed. There are people waiting outside the building. Inside you cannot move (and you cannot breathe). We are fighting to get to the information monitor. We look at the monitor. Calling number C23. That is only like 30 numbers away from our number. We decide to stay. Finally it is our turn at 11.15am.

The "offices" are not only packed. They are basically like eight kinda sales booths with eight (as per Argentine measures highly-paid) employees of the República Argentina. These guys are thoroughly carrying out what easily is the most important task of the Argentine fiscal system: checking the photocopy of P.'s Argentine identification (btw, we had to bring the photocopy ourselves), stamping the photocopy, hacking the whole data into their computer, getting the new number (automatically assigned by the system), writing down the number on the photocopy. Done! I am fairly sure, that years of training were necessary to develop the skills and capabilities to be able to carry out these tasks in all their complexity. And I am happy that the Argentine state is admitting to the non-automation of these processes, so that these poor souls still have some (highly-paid) work. The use of the internet is an imperialistic invention of the capitalist western industry nations.

Anyway, we are happy that we have got the clave fiscal now. Part 1 (out of 3) of our journey is done. We are leaving AFIP with a feeling of sadness. We have grown so fond of these guys. And while we are leaving, we are handing our second number (remember? D24.) over to a girl, who just entered the building only to desperately realize, that there are no more numbers left for the day. She only has to wait for what I think should be like 2 hours.

We are on our way back to customs. As we have kind of a deal with the customs lady (her name is Z.), that after we got our clave fiscal we are allowed to just come to her place directly without taking a new number. This makes us feel quite optimistic, that we might hold the package in hand pretty soon. Customs "offices" are packed. Lots of people. Z. is not available. Darn! After waiting about 15 minutes Z. shows up. Lucky us. We just jump the queue and head straight to Z.

So what is Z.'s actual job? She again asks us for the overall value of the package, hacks the value into the computer using our newly obtained clave fiscal, prints out lots of paper, neatly stamps all the papers she gave us and all of the papers we brought (with a stamp that says "verde" and accordingly comes in green color... neat!), hands the papers over to us. Done!

So this is the ultimate proof, that the package has undergone customs procedures, we were paying our taxes correctly, the value of the package is actually 18 EUR and hence does not exceed the limit of 25 USD. We are chatting a little more (which I guess is the reason for all the people waiting so long... ;) ...). Z. is really interested in our stories about Germany and the overall situation. We are happy, that we got our customs procedures done and are able to go to pick up the package straight away. This ends part 2 of our 3 part journey.

Second wind. We are all excited. This journey is soon to be over. We are heading to Correo Argentino's main office. It is a little further down General Paz, but it is not too far away. Full of anticipation we arrive around 1 pm. First entrance: nobody responsible. Second entrance: got the wrong door, nobody responsible.

Third entrance: the "offices" are packed. People are sitting and standing around with either desperate or angry looks on their faces. Some of them are just staring absent-mindedly. Fortunately no signs of hospitalism yet. After a quick discussion with the waiting folks it turns out, that - surprise - people here are served by numbers. The lady explains to us, that she is handing out the numbers manually. They are only serving 100 numbers per day. Since noon all the numbers are taken for today. It is Friday. Over the weekend the hard-working Correo Argentino guys have to rest (Correo Argentino is a public enterprise). Monday is a holiday. Come back on Tuesday. Thx a bunch. Goodbye!

Meet Argentine Customs Procedures - Day 1

Even in Argentina it sometimes happens, that you need imported goods. This is usually due to the particular things not being available for a decent price, with the necessary quality or because they are just not available at all. In this case - as the European boy I am - you just fire up your internet browser to order things for delivery to your parent's place back in Germany for them to send out the stuff to Argentina. This procedure is a little more on the costly side in terms of postal charges, but sometimes you just have to. So here we are...

P.S. I am a guest in Argentina. As such I will not personally comment on any of the events and (try to) just describe what I experienced...

Meet Argentine Customs Procedures

 

Fun facts to start with

DHL have offices in Argentina and they provide services here. Anyway, if you send out packages from Europe via DHL, they are handing these over to Argentina's public postal service Correo Argentino. I guess that is due to Argentina's customs procedures. Tracking the package via the DHL tracking identification is easily possible up to the Argentine border. In reality this means, that you are able to track the package from Hanover, Germany to Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The plane with the package is going to Buenos Aires directly, which is in Argentina, thus past the Argentine border, hence no tracking outside of Germany. My heartfelt thanks go out to the DHL guys for their service.

Day 1 - Thursday, October 9th, 2014

In the morning the doorbell rings - it is the Correo Argentino guy. He tells us, that he has got a package for us. We are getting downstairs only to find the Correo guy telling us, that he does not really have the package with him. He has got a kind of parcel registration card for us - including service fees to pay for Correo Argentino's hard work storing the package for us at their offices rather than delivering it to us directly (40 ARS). He tells us to go to customs with the registration card. There we would get the package.

We are going to customs right away. It is only like 2 blocks from here, so we are okay. We take a number, approximately 1h to wait. Quickly doing some grocery shopping while we are "waiting". Coming back to the customs office, the customs lady tells us, that we need a Clave Fiscal Category 3 (it is basically a specific tax number). Every Argentine who receives foreign goods, buys foreign currency or has any income from independent services needs such a clave fiscal. The Argentine government generously allows every Argentine to import goods for 25 USD...! per year...! which includes cost for postage and packing...! Goods exceeding the 25 USD are taxed with 50% of the value (i.e. the overall value of the goods plus postage and packing). To keep track of the 25 USD you need the clave fiscal. Young lady asks us, how much the value of our package is. As to our knowledge it is 18 EUR (23 USD). Her remark: "well, that is quite cheap". Yup, it is, ma'am.

We need a clave fiscal. The customs guys are doing customs things. Clave fiscal is a fiscal thing. So we are on our way to the Argentine tax authority (AFIP - Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos) offices right away to get our clave fiscal (about 4 blocks away). The "offices" are packed. There are people waiting outside the building. Inside you cannot move (and you cannot breathe). We are fighting to get inside the building just to learn by chance, that we took the wrong entrance. There is a separate entrance where they are handing out claves fiscales only. As AFIP basically owns the whole block, we leave the queue and the building, half-way round the block is our entrance to get the clave fiscal. The "offices" are packed. There are people waiting outside the building. Inside you cannot move (and you cannot breathe). We are fighting to get to the information desk. The guy explains to us, that you have to take a number. They are only serving 500 numbers per day. Since 9.30 am all the numbers are taken for today (meanwhile it is 1 pm). After 2.5hrs of dealing (or rather not dealing) with officials we are going back home without a clave fiscal and without the package.

Mass Murder to Mass Production

In the end I just had to surrender to the normative force of the factual. The basic means I had available to prepare my own yoghurt were just too basic to produce reliable results. I tried to imitate an incubator for my yoghurt bacteria with the means of

• an electric oven with a mechanical timer (restricted to a maximum run time of 60 mins) and an analogue heat selector (which expectedly was extremely inaccurate)
• digital clinical thermometer
• repeatedly checking temperature of the electric oven using the clinical thermometer which I positioned inside the oven (open the oven, turn on the thermometer, close the oven, wait for the result of your measurement, open the oven, turn off the thermometer, close the oven... and of course, every time you open the door the temperature inside the oven changes...)

The production was extremely time-consuming. I had to constantly control the temperature (which was near impossible to be kept at the same level for more than 30 seconds) plus I had to reset the timer every 60 minutes (the oven only heats up while the timer is running). So for 10 hours I was constantly involved in breeding bacteria for them to produce my yoghurt. The whole venture was ridiculously unsuccessful.

Enter YOGURTEO.

Moulinex yogurteo (I thought Moulinex were bankrupt)

At some point in time mis casi suegros had pity with me and send out a new yogurtera as a gift for el chico alemán/el gringo to feel at home in Argentina. Defeat! But since then I went straight from mass murder to mass production. I re-established my old habits to eat at least 300 grams of yoghurt every night. Dairy Heaven!

Yoghurt Mass Production

I experimented with different recipes, i.e. particularly trying out different starter cultures and different times for the breeding process. The best results you get from

• La Serenisima Activia Natural Yogurt (1 x 190 grams)
• Sancor Leche entera extra calcio (1 litre)
• Nestle Milk Powder (3 tablespoons)

What do you do with these things?

1. cook the milk
2. let it cool down (this is a very important step, if you want to prevent mass murder...)
3. put the starter cultures (i.e. the yoghurt you bought) in a bowl and stir until smooth using a fork
4. filter milk to remove skin
5. put three tablespoons of milk powder into the milk (this is necessary to provide the known texture to the yoghurt, because the milk you are buying at the supermarket has been processed so much, that yoghurt you make from it just does not develop the same texture and taste as raw milk does... plus the milk I buy here has specifically been hyper processed in terms of additions of vitamins and calcium)
6. put the prepared milk into the smooth yogurt; continuous stirring
7. prefill the incubator glasses with the mixture of milk and bacteria
8. set the incubator to 8hrs
9. after 8hrs put the yogurt into the fridge for at least 6hrs

Always keep one glass of yogurt as a starter culture for the next turn.

Fun fact: there are two brands of natural, non-flavored yoghurt you can buy in Argentina, Sancor Yogs and the aforementioned La Serenisima Activia. Yogs is what I would consider kinda natural yoghurt: no preservatives, additional artificial or natural flavors, sweeteners, cereals, fruit stuff; plain yoghurt with some milk powder and gelatine (as a stabilizer... doh!). The Activia (which actually is a Danone product sold in Argentina under the name of La Serenisima, who in turn are the biggest dairy producer in Argentina and, with a 1.5 billion USD yearly revenue, apparently are an internationally renowned dairy brand [that's what wikipedia says]) packaging says it is natural yoghurt, but as a matter of fact there is lots of additional stuff in there, particularly sugar. But in terms of the used bacteria it produces the best results. So I kinda have to accept the sugar. And after the first turn of yoghurt production the additions to the original plain yoghurt are fairly irrelevant, because the initial yoghurt has been so diluted and the only thing that continues to grow inside the yoghurt are the actual bacteria I need as a starter culture.

As I was in an experimenting mood, I even tried to prepare myself some frozen yoghurt. Frozen yoghurt is fairly hip in Europe. I thought: easy! You just put the yoghurt in the freezer and you get... frozen yoghurt. Let me tell you the truth, that was one more failure in my dairy ventures. The freezing process turns the yoghurt (smooth and creamy texture) into a mess of once again liquid whey with little coagulated protein flakes swimming in there. Not very nice to look at. Doesn't change the taste though... :)

So no, frozen yoghurt is not just... freezing your yoghurt. It is processed ice cream just as well. If you want your frozen yoghurt to be really yummy, you put lots of cream. Which in turn means, yes, frozen yoghurt contains yoghurt, but that doesn't really make the stuff healthier. Put some toppings and it is even worse than your average regular ice cream...

Anyway, I am decided: I'm gonna quit my job and establish my own dairy company... :)

Sabbatical - The Slightly Unexpected Second Half

So here I am, still in Argentina. I applied for an extension of my sabbatical until end of February next year and I had been discussing the issue basically since early July. But as it sometimes happens with companies, the approval of my application literally took until the final seconds of my (now old first) sabbatical period. Got the information, that I am allowed to continue my leave of absence on September 26th, which was the Friday before my assumed first working week after the sabbatical. The discussions were going back and forth between me and my manager in Germany. He always told me to keep calm and carry on, wait and see. I had a very hard time doing that. When I initiated the first negotiations regarding the sabbatical the then responsible HR lady told me, that currently it is impossible to go on leave of absence for more than six months. I always assumed she was right. And that is why I was prepared to just leave Argentina on September 28th and start my work on October 1st. I couldn't have waited any longer for the approval.

Anyway, they approved the extension and they even approved it to be a paid (!) leave of absence, which means, that I am even getting some money for my time off (but in turn have to improve certain skills, while being away from work). I am very grateful for that.

On the other hand in the end the overall procedure just took too long to execute the plan to go pay a highly esteemed friend in Austin, TX a visit. I just hope, that we're gonna make it next year. I am very sorry, Nicole... :(