The Chinese go crazy for Argentine beef
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Argentines involved with the beef, pork, and poultry industries are really very enthusiastic about the future, due to the Chinese rising demand.
According to the USDA analysis, Chinese beef imports would increase from 0.42 metric tons (carcass weight equivalent) in 2014 to 1.68 MT this year, while pork meat imports would growth from 0.76 to 2.20 MMT in this space, and poultry imports from 0.26 to 0.58 million tons.
This means to a change from 1.44 MT of meat imports in 2014 to 4.46 MT during 2019.
As the Argentine pork sector is still replacing imports for local production and poultry industry is still in a long term crisis, it is just as well the beef industry is able to show a steady increase in its exports.
According to the AgroIndustry secretariat, in 2018 total beef exports climbed to 0.56 Mt from 0.31 in 2017. But in 2019 the first two months, exports reached 0.99 MT, versus 0.68 MT in 2018, i.e. a 46% increase year on year.
The monthly report from the IPCVA (Beef Promotion Institute) explains that during the first two months of the year, China bought 44,059 tonnes from Argentina from 22,808 tonnes in 2018.
The Asian country is the largest Argentine beef importer, while the second one, Chile, only bought 4,822 tons in this period.
According to the IPCVA’s statistics, China represents now 68% of the beef exports and its imports from the country grew 93% since 2018.
China is, however, buying cheaper beef cuts than Germany for example. The average tonne price of beef exported to Germany rounded 9,076 USD, versus USD to China.
As beef production remains stable, domestic consumption has dropped to 52 kg/head/year in February, versus 59.2 kg a year ago due to the recession.
Argentineans are replacing beef for pork or poultry meat. Argentineans once eat over 100 kilograms per capita, now they replaced a half of that consumption with cheaper meats due to the weak economy.
Source: efarmnews.
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