BUENOS AIRES: Argentina, one of the world’s largest food exporters, could seek to nationalize the troubled soyameal giant Vicentin, which has a large debt with the state, President Alberto Fernandez said in an interview with local media on Sunday.

Concerned about high domestic inflation, the center-left government tried to take control of the firm in 2020 to help fix local food prices, which faced strong pushback from the agricultural industry. Vicentin, once Argentina’s top soyameal exporter, is currently bankrupt.

“Now in Vicentin a new scenario is opening up, which in 2020 we did not have, and this gives the possibility of an intervention that I ruled out at that time,” Fernandez said in an interview with the newspaper Pagina 12.

“I backed away from nationalization, but we are still working on the ‘cramdown’ alternative and now there is a scenario where, perhaps, we can do something,” he added.

Banco Nacion, controlled by the Argentine state, is one of the firm’s main creditors. According to local media, Vicentin is $300 million in debt to the bank.

“In terms of food, we have to do something that allows us to intervene in some way to put things in order,” Fernandez said. Argentina is suffering from inflation that could exceed 70% this year, according to analyst estimates.

Until 2019 Vicentin was the main exporter of soybean oil and meal from Argentina. But at the end of that year the company announced an unexpected default of more than $1 billion. Several of those creditors included international financial institutions.