MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan meat exports on the rise

While sales abroad flourish, Uruguayan consumers are to be offered less expensive Brazilian meat cuts

Uruguay's Livestock Minister Fernando Mattos Tuesday highlighted that his country had surpassed US$ 2 billion in beef exports and that projections for the end of the year showed record figures. Mattos also recalled that in 2021 US$ 3 billion worth of meat were exported.

“At this point of the year, Uruguay already surpassed two billion dollars in exports of meat, by-products and giblets. It is a very important rhythm, we are surpassing at this point of the year the levels of 2021 and surely if this trend continues we are going to reach a new record,” he highlighted.

“We are very happy and satisfied with a level of activity that has fallen a little in August and July, but comes with a semester that was well above 2021,” he added.

This second half of the year is expected to see a rebound in meat exports to China, a market that was impacted by the restrictive measures adopted due to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Uruguay's domestic market is to be impacted by the arrival of barbecue cuts imported from Brazil. According to Montevideo media reports, butchers foresee that “people are going to love it.”

Rafael Rodríguez, vice-president of the meat retailers' Unión de Vendedores de Carne (UVC), assured that the meat is of “as good quality” as the Uruguayan one and customers will not notice the difference.

”We were looking at the merchandise, it is an asado that is going to have a high yield for the general public, people are going to love it (...) it has no fat, it is all usable,“ he underlined.

”It is very well prepared and comes with all the neatness that we all require when buying meat,” he added.

Brazilian meat is expected to be around 10% less expensive than Uruguay's.

Not all butcher's shops will have the product in the next few days because the first truck with 24,000 kilos of meat has just arrived, but stocks will be generated over time. Once the meat arrives at the slaughterhouse, it goes through different processes, among them, a salmonella test that takes three days.

The decision to import Brazilian meat came amid strong inflationary pressure that placed the Consumer Price Index (CPI) since March above 9% yoy.

Minister Mattos said that the Brazilian meat will allow Uruguay's population to have access to a cheaper product. The first batch arrived at Abasto Santa Clara, located on the border between Montevideo and Canelones.