BUENOS AIRES: Project to declare Mate as a national drink.

An Argentina national deputy has submitted a draft of law to declare the Mate as a National infusion.

Mate is an infusion with strong roots in Argentina and Uruguay, whose inhabitants are the largest Mate world's consumers.

The Mate grass or "Ka'a" in the Guarani language, is a plant from Upper Paraná and was introduced in the north-west Argentina by the Jesuits, who discovered its use and consume among the communities that lived in territory of Paraguay.

The Mate is consumed in 92% of Argentina families.It is one of the most established traditions and the popular base of a regional economy that drives the development of the north-east of Argentina. Just as the wine is a national drink, the draft law aims to give equal status to the most important infusion of the country.

Argentina is the world's leading producer of grass Mate, concentrated in the provinces of Misiones (triple border) and Corrientes, 1,144 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires. The cultivated areas are about 200,000 acres which supply the local consume and export, for a total of about 18,000 producers of grass, 230 dryers and 130 mills processors.