MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chinese sanctions on Uruguay's Frigorífico Rosario lifted

Meat packing plant workers mobilized in Montevideo to protest Chinese sanctions in May. Photo: Sebastián Astorga

Uruguay's Frigorífico Rosario has been allowed to resume exports to China following a sanction on Sept. 30, 2021, that banned the meat processing plant from sending shipments to the Asian giant, Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries Fernando Mattos announced.

Frigorifico Rosario's reinstatement ”was published in the early hours of this morning (Monday), Monday time in China,“ Mattos explained. He added that the plant had been sidelined on September 30 last year ”due to a non-conformity of the product, which was not in accordance with the protocol signed between Uruguay and China.“

Mattos highlighted the ”great effort of different entities, mainly the Animal Industry Division of the Ministry of Livestock, which made all the procedures and rehabilitation reports, and the National Meat Institute (Inac), which supported the virtual audits to which the slaughterhouse itself has been subjected to adjust the mechanisms of industrial processes, which were questioned by the Chinese authorities.“

He also thanked ”the efforts of the Uruguayan Embassy in Beijing, the Ministry of Livestock, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,“ for the outcome of the negotiations.

On the closing day of the traditional Expo Prado rural fair, Mattos said he found the absence of Montevideo Mayor Carolina Cosse ”unbelievable“ and insisted that Expo Prado was ”organized by the Rural Association of Uruguay (ARU)“ and was not a partisan issue.”

Mattos recalled that when he was ARU president he shared the authorities' box with leftwing Frente Amplio heads of state such as Tabaré Vázquez and José Mujica.

“I saw little presence of representatives of the opposition and it could have been a nice opportunity to exchange opinions regarding the progress of the sector and the national economy,” Mattos stressed as only one FA Congressman (Alejandro Sánchez) was present at the event.

“I welcome the presence of Senator Sánchez,” Mattos noted. “It seems to me that if it is a fair, which is the most outstanding that Uruguay has, that takes place in Montevideo, which is held in a property of the City Hall where it has a stand, it calls my attention, but I could not explain what the reasons are” for Cosse's absence., he added.

“This year we are projecting US$14.5 billion in total exports of goods and almost US$11 billion of agro-industrial products, which will represent a historic record for the country,” said Mattos at the closing of Expo Prado. “We have all the conditions to become a high-income country, and to achieve this it is essential to carry out structural reforms in social security, education, and the State,” he pointed out.

Mattos added that, despite its size, Uruguay stood out, despite its size, in several agro-industrial sectors and was among the top 10 players in world trade in several areas. He also explained that recent investments and technological progress had made it possible to reach winter crop records.

Mattos considered that agriculture has achieved a great current performance, in spite of a complex international context and that this rhythm is possible thanks to the “favorable signals” of public policies, which provided guarantees and certainties to the sector.

The minister also underlined that the Uruguayan Government defended before Mercosur the “freedom of negotiation and improvement of market access conditions.”

“Uruguay is a middle-income country, top of the class, in a continent that is very bad on the scale,” Mattos highlighted. He recalled that the economy will grow above 4.7% in 2022.