ARGENTINA-BEEF: First Stop USA, on the Way to Asia

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 25 1997 (IPS) - For the first time in 65 years, a shipment of fresh Argentine beef will enter the United States Tuesday.

Three months after Argentina was declared free of hoof-and- mouth disease — “with vaccination” — by the International Epizootilogical Office, the first load of beef will reach the United States — paving the way towards the “very important potential markets” of Asia, according to local rancher Enrique de Leon.

On Monday, Agriculture Secretariat officials escorted the 320- kg shipment, part of a 20,000-tonne quota authorised three years ago by the United States in the framework of the Uruguayan Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, replaced by the World Trade Organisation).

The shipment will be the first to enter the United States — destined for a tasting session in the Argentine Embassy in Washington, D.C. — after a 65-year embargo due to hoof-and-mouth disease.

Although the 20,000-tonne quota accounts for a mere four percent of Argentina’s annual beef exports, it symbolises the opening of a floodgate.

Rancher Enrique de Leon told IPS the shipment was “very important” because it not only opened up the U.S. market of more than 260 million consumers, but paved the way towards the Asian market, which demands similar quality beef.

The countries of southeast Asia currently consume 25 percent of all beef traded worldwide. But hoof-and-mouth disease had left Argentina — the world’s top beef exporter in 1971 — out of that attractive market.

The disease neutralised the advantages provided by the rich pastureland in Argentina’s central pampas, and the sector began to decline just as the economies of southeast Asia began to boom. Local producers were only able to export pre-cooked or canned beef, and little by little, Australia, New Zealand and the United States filled the place previously occupied by Argentina.

Although an intense health campaign implemented over the past few years eradicated the disease, the Agriculture Secretariat is reluctant to lift the requirement for vaccination due to fears of a new outbreak of the virus.

Japan, a highly demanding market which buys the most expensive cuts of beef, will not purchase meat from countries where vaccination is still required.

So far, local producers have awakened the interest of Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore. With the opening of the U.S. market, they hope to make inroads into China, Thailand and Malaysia, and later Japan and South Korea — “very important potential markets” in the words of De Leon.

Vietnam, a country of 70 million, doubled its consumption of beef in the past decade. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia have a combined total of 380 potential consumers.