MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina hopes to resume beef exports next week

“The virtuous solution takes time,” said Kulfas

Argentina's Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas, Thursday said meat exports are to resume next week after details to ensure proper supply to local consumers are fine-tuned.

Kulfas spoke of “a virtuous solution” being sought to give producers alternatives with “a new scheme of rules of the game” to be released at the earliest.

The current 30-day ban on meat exports ends Sunday,

“The idea is that with a new scheme of rules of the game that we have finished adjusting, next week we can resume the export path, seeking to ensure that the Argentine table is well supplied,” Kulfas said in a radio interview.

He also explained ”the objective is to guarantee that there is a greater supply of the domestic market. The details will be given in the next few hours or tomorrow (Friday), but in principle, the idea is that meat can be exported again, but with a scheme that guarantees “a greater presence in the domestic market.”

On May 20, the national government decided to suspend beef exports for 30 days, after the sharp rise in domestic prices, in addition to alleged irregularities in some foreign operations that put pressure on values. However, shipments to fill in the Hilton Quota, the 481 quotas and to the United States were excepted.

According to a survey by the Institute for the Promotion of Beef (Ipcva), in May the average increase in price to consumers was 6.1% compared to April, while the year-on-year accumulated was 76%, almost 30 points above the inflationary index.

Kulfas admitted to having had talks with meat producers. “We have explained to them that the main objective is to order the operation of the sector and also to produce more because the virtuous way out of this is precise that Argentina can overcome the historical barrier of 3 million tons.”

He added that “if you can go to a production of five million tons, which is the great objective of the sectoral development plan, 3 million tons could be guaranteed for the domestic market and, at the same time, have two million tons to export. This is the virtuous way out.”

“We are working with exporters, we speak with unions. The virtuous solution takes time,” he went on.