MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina expects record beef export year.

Argentine beef exports during the first half of this year jumped 52% in volume and 72% in revenue compared to the same period a year ago.

The 260,000 tons and 452 million US dollars forecast the best export year for Argentine beef since 1995 when shipments represented over a billion US dollars.

According to a report from the Argentine Consortium of Beef Exporters several reasons coincided for the excellent performance and prospects.

Argentina's recovery of the European market, the strong revaluation of the Euro, growing concern in United States and Canada with "mad cow" disease and Russia's decision to look for non traditional suppliers, are among the reasons included in the report.

However the report also indicates that the beef industry has yet to fully recover from the foot and mouth disease crisis of 2000 when virtually all markets, traditional and non traditional, were closed to Argentine beef.

"If the sanitary episode had not occurred beef sales, an emblematic Argentine export, should have reached this year almost a million tons", says the report comparing six months figure with the 429 million US dollars of fisheries exports and three billion in soybeans.

Argentina expects to recover its free of FAM with vaccination status next October when twelve months will have elapsed with no reports of further outbreaks.

The report compares the Argentine situation with Uruguay which rapidly recovered from the Argentine FAM contagion (2201) and has since gained top international sanitary marks and recently recovered the United States market.

"We have been the less favored by the international beef bonanza and the sanitary variable is where our efforts must concentrate to definitively consolidate the recovery registered in the last two years", concludes the report.