As geopolitical instability convulses parts of the Middle East, Argentina's yerba mate industry — which sends the overwhelming majority of its exports to the region — faces a question that carries existential weight: can the supply chain hold? According to Piporé, one of the country's oldest and largest yerba mate cooperatives, the answer is an unequivocal yes.
In a statement issued on March 5, 2026, Piporé president Martín Brítez dismissed reports that the cooperative had halted exports to the Middle East, calling the claims unfounded and confirming that shipments are proceeding on schedule. The denial came as peer companies in Argentina's northeastern Misiones province acknowledged canceling contracts with Syrian buyers, citing logistical disruptions caused by ongoing armed conflict in parts of the region.
The Mediterranean Lifeline
The key to Piporé's confidence lies in geography. Raúl Karaben, a senior director at the cooperative, explained that between 90% and 95% of all Argentine yerba mate bound for the Middle East enters the region through one of two corridors: the Port of Tartus in Syria or overland via Turkey. Both routes traverse the Mediterranean basin, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz entirely — the chokepoint where most of the current military tensions are concentrated.
"Our shipments go through the Mediterranean, not through the Persian Gulf," Karaben told Argentine media. "The conflict zones are geographically removed from the routes our product takes."
Between 90% and 95% of the yerba mate destined for the Middle East enters through the Port of Tartus in Syria or through Turkey. The conflict zones are geographically removed from our shipping routes.
A Market That Dwarfs All Others
The stakes of Middle Eastern demand for Argentine yerba mate are difficult to overstate. According to data from the Instituto Nacional de la Yerba Mate (INYM), Argentina exported a record 45,109 tons of yerba mate in 2024, of which Syria alone absorbed approximately 77% — roughly 34,700 tons valued at $63 million. In 2025, exports surged further to 57,981 tons, a 32.2% year-on-year increase, with Syria and neighboring markets still accounting for over 71% of total foreign sales as of November.
For Piporé specifically, the Middle East represents 30% to 40% of total production — a market share so large that any disruption would reverberate through the cooperative's 600-plus member farmers in Misiones province. The cooperative's presence at Gulfood 2026 in Dubai, where it showcased a dedicated agent for the Syrian market, underscored just how central the region remains to its commercial strategy.
The Grupo Kabour Pipeline
Much of Argentina's yerba mate trade with the Middle East flows through a single actor: Grupo Kabour, a Syrian-based conglomerate that operates as both importer and regional distributor. In 2025, Grupo Kabour shipped 19.9 million kilograms of yerba mate — making it, along with two other firms, responsible for roughly 80% of all Argentine yerba mate exports. From its base in Syria, Kabour repackages and redistributes the product across the Levant and Gulf states, serving markets in Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE.
This concentration of trade through a single hub creates both efficiency and vulnerability. While Grupo Kabour's established infrastructure provides scale and deep market knowledge, it also means that any disruption to Syrian port operations or domestic distribution could cascade across the entire regional supply chain. Syrian importers, however, are known to maintain substantial inventory reserves — a buffer that Piporé says provides additional protection against short-term logistic disruptions.
Competitors Retreat as Piporé Holds
Not every Argentine exporter shares Piporé's sanguine outlook. Reports from Argentine business media indicate that several companies have already canceled planned shipments to Syria, citing uncertainty about port access, payment settlement, and insurance coverage for goods transiting contested waters. The names of the retreating firms have not been publicly disclosed, but industry sources suggest the pullback is concentrated among smaller exporters who lack the established relationships and logistical hedges that cooperatives like Piporé maintain.
The divergence in strategy highlights a structural divide in Argentina's yerba mate export sector. Large cooperatives with decades-long relationships in the Arab world — Piporé was founded in 1930 and has been exporting to Syria since the mid-20th century — can absorb short-term uncertainty because their buyers are committed partners, not transactional clients. Smaller firms, by contrast, often operate on spot contracts with less margin for error.
Why Syria Drinks Yerba Mate
The bond between Syria and yerba mate is one of the more improbable stories in global trade. It dates to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when waves of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants settled in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay — the heartland of yerba mate production. Upon returning home or maintaining ties with the diaspora, these communities brought the beverage with them. Over generations, mate drinking became embedded in Syrian daily life, particularly in cities like Aleppo and Latakia, where it is consumed socially in a manner strikingly similar to its South American origins.
Today, Syria is the world's largest importer of yerba mate by volume, a position it has held for decades despite more than a decade of civil war and economic sanctions. The resilience of demand speaks to the depth of the cultural adoption: mate is not a luxury in Syria; it is a staple with deep social meaning.
What Happens If the Route Closes
Industry analysts note that a prolonged disruption to Mediterranean shipping — while unlikely given the distance from current conflict zones — would pose a severe problem for Argentina's entire yerba mate sector, not just exporters. Domestic consumption in Argentina absorbs roughly 260 million kilograms annually, dwarfing the 58,000 tons exported. But export revenue provides critical margin for producers, particularly the 13,500 smallholder farms in Misiones and Corrientes provinces that already operate near the break-even point due to depressed producer prices.
The Argentine government's 2024 deregulation of the INYM, which previously set minimum producer prices, has left farmers more exposed to price volatility. A loss of the Middle Eastern market — however remote — would remove the only significant source of foreign demand and the price premium it provides, potentially triggering another wave of the producer-price crisis that led to a growers' strike in late 2025.
The Bottom Line
Piporé's public denial of any export disruption is as much a strategic signal as it is a factual claim. By reaffirming business continuity, the cooperative reassures its Middle Eastern buyers, its member farmers, and the broader market that Argentina's largest yerba mate supply line to the Arab world remains intact. Whether that confidence holds will depend on factors largely beyond the cooperative's control — but for now, the container ships are still sailing through the Mediterranean, carrying Argentina's most emblematic crop to the people who adopted it as their own.