While overseas sales have skyrocketed, it was only exported in January and March.
The foreign purchases of pork were record-breaking in the first five months of the year, reaching 21,589 tons, when in 2021 they had reached 11,866 tons. Meanwhile, imports for May 2022 have been 61.6% more than in the same month of 2021 Y 152.2% compared to the same period in 2020.
While in Argentina the income from inputs for production is limited by the lack of foreign currency for imports, in the first four months of the year US $ 15 million was spent each month to buy cheap pork from Brazil, making increase the producer price while remaining stagnant but not what the consumer pays at the counter.
The entry of cheap Brazilian merchandise early in the year meant that many local refrigerators stopped buying from Argentine producers and the prices they pay remain low. However, this did not translate into a decline in consumer prices for pork because its evolution is directly linked to that of beef prices.
Pork imports five months 2022
“This harms local production and doesn’t help consumers at all,” warned livestock engineer and pig market specialist Juan Uccelli.
“The price to the consumer has risen every month, but the Argentine producers have been angry, who have been paid less or have not bought their pigs, because with that import the normal circulation of supply has been interrupted” , explained Uccelli in dialogue with Clarin Rural.
According to the engineer, the main importers of pork are not refrigerators but traders who buy Brazilian meat, leave it in the cold room for fifteen days and then sell it to butchers or supermarkets without industrializing or adding value or creating employment locally. .
“Anyone know what price these companies come in and what price they resell? What difference are they making? Do they pay income tax? It’s the closest thing to a money table but with pork,” he said.
Evolution of Argentine pork exports.
On the other side of the ladder, so far this year only 3.4% of what was sold abroad was exported in 2021 and 2.4% in 2020. From the first five months of 2022 only 423 tons of shipments have left, 213 tons in January and 210 tons in March, while in the rest of the months sales were zero. In the same period of 2021, exports amounted to 19,401 tons.
Faced with this scenario, Uccelli specified: “We have never exported so little in so many years. Some exports would remove pressure from the internal market, but there is no medium and long term vision”.
cowboy kitten
Source: Clarin
