Despite being the largest exporter, Brazil has the region’s cheapest meat on the counter

Argentina lost first place on the podium of the region’s cheapest beef for consumers at the hands of Brazil, according to the Mediterranean Foundation’s Institute of Economic Studies on Argentine and Latin American Reality (IERAL) from a work done by Juan Manuel Garzón and Tobias Lucero.

In fact, in the Relief of the first fortnight of Augustthe entity has determined this Brazil, the largest beef exporter in the world, is currently the country with the lowest price of beef compared to Argentina, Chile and Uruguayunlike previous studies where Argentina occupied that place (2020, 2021 and 2022).

From 2020 IERAL compares the consumer prices of beef in the region to determine if it is expensive in Argentina, not so much in absolute terms but in relation to what it is worth in neighboring countries where, due to proximity, the nature of the beef produced, level development, trade opportunities and other problems, relatively similar prices would be expected, particularly among exporting countries.

For this, a price comparison is made for a series of cuts between Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, using information from official agencies; then a second comparison is made with an online price survey in supermarkets to incorporate Brazil, a country that does not have price data from public sources.

“In the first fifteen days of August, the average price of a Basket of 8 slices of medium / high quality is located around the $ 1,550 per kilo in Brazil, closely followed by Argentina where a value of $ 1,557 per kilo was found, While for Uruguay and Chile there are much higher values, which are close to at $ 1,800 / kilo and $ 1,950 / kilo respectively ”, in detail IERAL.

For the institution, the fact that Argentina has ceased to be the country with the cheapest beef in the region, losing that leadership to Brazil, is not surprising since “it is currently the world’s leading exporter, in recent years it has left behind other large exporters, such as the United States or Australia, demonstrating great cost competitiveness ”. Also, In Argentina, beef is becoming increasingly expensive in dollars, following an appreciation of the exchange in real terms that has been going on for about 24 months -from mid-2020, prices in the economy are rising more

In the comparison between Uruguay and Argentina, including 15 cuts of meat, IERAL found that, as of July 2022, the average price of that basket of cuts was USD 9.76 per kilo in Uruguay and USD 8.67 per kilo in Argentina, that is, on average, Argentine meat was 11% less than in Uruguay. “This gap is still widening, considering that it was on average 27% in 2020, 11% in 2021, but at the beginning of 2022 it closed at 3%, again in favor of Argentina; In any case, it should be noted that, in other years, meat was more expensive in Argentina than in Uruguay (+ 18% in 2015 and + 8% in 2016) “, clarified the body.

For the same month, however, comparing the prices of 13 cuts with Chile, there the basket was 10.40 USD / kilo, while in Argentina it was 9.88 USD / kilo. In July, beef was 5% less in Argentina than in Chile. “Here it is also noted that the gap continues to be favorable to Argentina, even if it has narrowed considerably considering that in the last three years (2019-2021 ) was on average in the order of 30% ”, indicated IERAL.