For the first time in more than four decades, Establecimiento Las Marías — the maker of Taragüí, the most recognized yerba mate brand in Argentina — is no longer the country's top seller. According to official data compiled from the Instituto Nacional de la Yerba Mate (INYM) and published by the specialized outlet Plan B Misiones, Cooperativa Liebig's Playadito brand sold 56.7 million kilograms in 2025, setting an all-time record for a single yerba mate brand in the Argentine market and displacing a company that has dominated the industry since the early 1980s.
Las Marías, whose portfolio includes Taragüí, Unión, La Merced, and Mañanita, finished 2025 in second place with 49.05 million kilograms — a gap of nearly 7.7 million kilograms that would have been unthinkable just two years ago. The shift marks the most significant competitive realignment in the history of Argentina's $2 billion yerba mate industry.
The Numbers Behind the Upset
Argentina's total internal yerba mate market reached approximately 267 million kilograms in 2025, according to the INYM figures. Within that market, the top five brands now account for roughly 62% of all domestic consumption, with noteworthy concentration at the top.
Playadito's 56.7 million kilograms represents approximately 21.2% of the national market, while Las Marías holds 18.4%. CBSé, produced by the Santa Ana cooperative in Misiones province, sits a distant third at 24.5 million kilograms. Amanda, manufactured by La Cachuera in the same province, follows with 19.9 million kilograms, and Verdeflor rounds out the top five at 15.5 million kilograms.
The leadership change became visible as early as January 2025, when Playadito posted sales of 4,892,240 kilograms — 22.2% of the monthly market — against Las Marías's 4,050,891 kilograms at 18.4%. By year's end, Playadito had achieved roughly 20% year-on-year growth compared to its 2024 performance, an expansion rate that far outstripped the overall market's modest trajectory.
The Deregulation Factor
The competitive earthquake cannot be separated from President Javier Milei's sweeping market deregulation, which dismantled the INYM's decades-old system of setting minimum producer prices and regulating trade conditions. Under the previous regime, the INYM established a precio sostén — a support price that guaranteed small-holder farmers a floor for their green leaf (hoja verde). With that mechanism weakened, the market shifted toward direct price negotiation between producers and processors.
Playadito exploited this new environment aggressively. As a cooperative based in Colonia Liebig, Corrientes province, Playadito integrated production and processing under a single structure, allowing tighter cost control than vertically fragmented competitors. The brand deployed a pricing strategy that undercut competing products at the retail shelf — a move that resonated with Argentine consumers squeezed by persistent inflation and declining real wages.
What Las Marías Lost — and What It Still Has
Las Marías remains one of the most vertically integrated and globally recognized yerba mate companies in the world. Its Taragüí brand is synonymous with Argentine yerba mate in export markets from the Middle East to North America. The company operates its own plantations covering thousands of hectares in Corrientes, processes its own leaf, and manages its own distribution network. Its La Merced line targets the premium segment, while Unión and Mañanita cover the mid-range and economy tiers.
But that breadth may also be a vulnerability. With four brands spread across multiple price points, Las Marías faces internal cannibalization pressure that a single-brand cooperative like Playadito does not. When consumers trade down — as millions of Argentines have done under the current macroeconomic conditions — the dollars that leave Taragüí's premium shelf position do not necessarily land on Unión or Mañanita. They land on whichever brand offers the most competitive price-per-kilo at the point of sale.
A Broader Market in Transition
| Rank | Brand | Parent Company | Volume (M kg) | Market Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Playadito | Cooperativa Liebig | 56.7 | 21.2% |
| 2 | Las Marías (combined) | Est. Las Marías | 49.05 | 18.4% |
| 3 | CBSé | Coop. de Productores de Yerba Mate de Santo Pipó | 24.5 | 9.2% |
| 4 | Amanda | La Cachuera S.A. | 19.9 | 7.5% |
| 5 | Verdeflor | Grupo Hreñuk | 15.5 | 5.8% |
| — | Others | Various | 101.35 | 37.9% |
The leadership change atop the ranking reflects a broader structural shift in Argentina's yerba mate sector. Deregulation has intensified price competition, consolidation pressures, and concerns about quality. Industry observers and cooperatives have raised alarms that the race to the bottom on retail pricing may incentivize the use of lower-grade leaves, shorter aging periods, and blending with cheaper botanical material — all of which could erode the distinctive character that has defined Argentine yerba mate for generations.
Small-holder farmers, numbering more than 10,000 families primarily in Misiones and Corrientes provinces, have been the most vocal critics. In early 2025, producers staged a "yerbatazo" protest in Buenos Aires, dumping yerba mate in the streets to dramatize their claim that deregulated prices had fallen below the cost of harvest. The INYM, once the institution responsible for setting the support price, has seen its regulatory authority significantly diminished under the current administration.
What Comes Next
Whether Playadito's ascendancy proves to be a durable structural change or a one-year anomaly driven by extreme price competition will depend on several factors: how long Argentina's macroeconomic stress continues to push consumers toward the cheapest option on the shelf; whether Las Marías adjusts its multi-brand pricing strategy to recapture volume; and whether quality concerns gain enough traction to prompt a regulatory or consumer backlash against the aggressive discounting that has fueled Playadito's rise.
For now, the numbers are unambiguous. After more than four decades, the Argentine yerba mate market has a new leader — and the circumstances that produced the change reveal as much about the country's economic trajectory as they do about consumer preferences at the supermarket shelf.