The Swiss banker who sought the freedom of Patagonia
Series Swiss entrepreneurs abroad, Episode 10:
From Switzerland’s financial centre to the Patagonian Steppe: how Swiss national Christoph Schär left the world of finance to build a new life as a sheep farmer in Argentina.
Shortly after 8am, on his way from Zurich to Langenthal, Christoph Schär stops off at a café in Lucerne’s Sursee, in central Switzerland. It is the morning after the football World Cup final. Argentina had fought for the title late into the night the previous evening – and lost.
Had Argentina won, Schär would probably have missed a huge party in his adopted home city of Buenos Aires. Now he is sitting in Switzerland, processing the defeat. “I watched the match at a public viewing event with my daughter Joséphine.”
His own personal disappointment is limited – Schär isn’t a big football fan. He says his daughter, on the other hand – who holds both Swiss and Argentine citizenship – was a little downhearted after the loss.
For the Schär family, Argentina means much more than just football. The country is part of a life that Christoph Schär, now 60, has built over years, and which has become his home. The former private banker and financial adviser is now an entrepreneur and sheep farmer, producing wool on the Patagonian Steppe with a flock of almost 10,000 Merino sheep.
Our series profiles Swiss men and women founding and building businesses abroad. Through their personal stories, we explore why they choose to pursue projects beyond Switzerland’s borders, the working conditions they encounter there, and the challenges and opportunities.
Through their life stories, this series also showcases how the Swiss Abroad community contributes to Switzerland’s economic, cultural, and political influence.
From banker to entrepreneur
Schär’s Swiss roots go back a long way. Records in the Lucerne State Archives show that his family can be traced back to 1342, when they were “continuously active as farmers”. He likes to say that farming is in his blood – even his grandmother ran a vegetable farm.
Nevertheless, he was initially drawn to the wider world and a “traditional” career. Schär studied in St Gallen, later worked at the Swiss Consulate General in New York, and then his career as a banker took off. Among other roles with a major Swiss bank, he managed a branch in Brazil. He eventually rose to the position of managing director.
But by his late 40s, he was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his professional life. “It simply wasn’t fulfilling me anymore,” he says today. Schär was looking for a new challenge and more scope for his own ideas.
He is particularly critical of the pressure which, in his view, the Swiss education system places on children. Children in Zurich, for example, would give up playing musical instruments because the academic demands were so high, he says.
“In South America, I’m fascinated by the vastness, and with it comes a certain freedom,” he says, adding that there are fewer rules and, as a result, more opportunities to shape things for oneself.
His wife Clara – herself Argentine – has close ties to her home country. Her family has been farming there for five generations. Eventually, they both decided to also set up their own business, just as Schär’s father once did, but in the same line of work as Clara’s family. They set out to find a farm of their own.
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A piece of Patagonia
In 2012, they found what they were looking for. During an economically and politically turbulent period in Argentina, they bought a farm in Patagonia. At first, Schär envisaged an idyllic weekend project.
Today, he has to laugh at that notion. “It was a mixture of naivety and romantic idealisation,” he says.
In 2016, the Schärs permanently relocated their main place of residence from Switzerland to Argentina. They rented a house in a suburb of Buenos Aires, near the German school, and rented out their house in Switzerland. They spend every spare minute at the “Campo”, as they call their farm in Patagonia.
Running a business in such a secluded location is challenging. The farm is situated in a very isolated spot. It’s a four-hour drive to the nearest airport and an hour to the nearest village. At first, there wasn’t a constant supply of electricity. Internet access has only been available since the Starlink satellite made it possible.
Schär says that, for a long time, Radio Chubut was one of the most important means of communication in the region, as various messages submitted to the station were read out once a week. Through this, he says he was able to advise his staff that “the bosses” were coming. To give notice of a spontaneous visit, on the other hand, he says, was virtually impossible.
Added to this is the natural environment: in winter, the snow regularly lies metres deep. Winds of up to 120km/h sweep through the steppe; they are too strong to install wind turbines, for example. This region is archaic and harsh, but that is precisely what makes it so fascinating and beautiful, says Schär. “A sheep either survives or dies in these conditions.”
The challenges of self-employment
The search for suitable staff is also proving more difficult than expected. Schär had imagined he could simply place an advert and recruit qualified people that way.
“Finding good people with the right attitude is the hardest thing of all,” Schär says. In Patagonia, he says everything depends on the shepherds and the manager, and you must be able to build a relationship of trust with them. Developing this mutual trust with the local population takes time, he says – on the one hand as a foreigner and, on the other, in his wife’s case, as a woman. In the heavily male-dominated world of livestock farming, this is a particular challenge, he says.
In addition to the climatic and staffing challenges, there are further risks, such as livestock theft. “There have been instances where hundreds of animals were stolen from the area in one go. At night, pumas or Patagonian foxes snatch sheep from the flocks,” he explains.
And then there’s the wool market. Schär doesn’t want to simply sell his wool at the prices set by established middlemen. In Argentina, a handful of large traders dominate the market.
When he tries to export his high-quality wool directly, he comes up against bureaucratic hurdles. He invests in sustainability certifications and battles his way through the regulations. “In the end, we were the first farm in Argentina to succeed in exporting directly to Uruguay,” he says proudly.
What’s easier in Argentina
At the same time, he wants to keep as much of the added value within the region as possible. The wool is to be washed, combed and spun locally. “Through the local processing chain, we can create jobs. Quite simply, that means more food and a brighter future for the local people,” he says.
The development of this remote region is an important part of the Schär family’s project. In this regard, Schär adheres to rules that, not least as a Swiss national, he considers self-evident: he pays wages on time, insures his staff against illness and accidents, and abides by the law.
Despite all these challenges, Schär does not feel that life in Argentina can simply be described as more complicated. For him, the uncertainty in particular also has a positive side. Not everything is regulated down to the smallest detail, he says, and there is a great deal of freedom.
“Uncertainty has always unleashed strength within me,” he says. For many problems, he says there is a pragmatic solution. “Nothing is impossible” – his father’s philosophy also accompanied him to Patagonia.
For him, the difference to Switzerland therefore is less about there being fewer problems in Argentina, and much more about how one deals with them.
A family business
Schär and his wife run the Campo together. He takes care of the company’s development, while Clara, a former McKinsey consultant, oversees the finances.
The children have also found their own paths in Argentina.
Their daughter Joséphine studied in Lausanne and Singapore and now works in Zurich. Pauline discovered her passion for polo in Argentina and, through strict discipline, made it into the ranks of Argentina’s top female players. Their son Jacques moved to Switzerland for his military service. He is now studying agronomy in Argentina.
For Schär, his children’s development is one of the reasons why he does not regret the move to Argentina. Despite a demanding education, they found plenty of scope here for sport, nature and their own interests. And – unlike what he had observed in Switzerland – they have never lost their joy in making music.
Today, Schär divides his time between the two worlds. He advises a select group of wealthy Brazilian clients while also working on expanding his business in Patagonia. His connection to Switzerland has never been severed and he returns regularly to take care of his affairs there. This summer, for example, he is clearing out his parents’ house in Langenthal. After that, he’ll be heading back to Argentina.
His journey is far from over. Schär has further projects he wants to realise in Argentina. Above all, however, he hopes that his children will one day take on a greater role in the business.
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Edited by Samuel Jaberg. Adapted from German by Katherine Price/ts
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