AGRICULTURE: Argentine Beef Looks Forward to New Opportunities

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 20 2001 (IPS) - The latest outbreak of panic over mad cow disease in Europe has led to a sharp drop in consumption and prices. But stockbreeders and exporters in Argentina are confident that in the medium-term, the markets will turn to this Southern Cone country in search of safe beef.

At least 100 countries are considered at risk of mad cow disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), according to a report released this month by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which lists Argentina among the six countries presenting the lowest risk.

FAO states that all countries that have imported cattle or meat and bone meal from western Europe since the 1980s are at potential risk of BSE.

Unlike in Europe, cattle in Argentina are pasture-fed – an advantage that made this country the world’s leading exporter of beef from 1900 to 1970, after which it fell to fourth place, behind Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Australia and New Zealand were also ranked by the FAO as low- risk, along with Chile, Norway and Paraguay, none of which are major exporters of beef.

In addition, a year ago Argentina made it onto the International Office of Epizootics list of countries free of foot- and-mouth disease without vaccination.

But the cautious optimism of stockbreeders and exporters in Argentina stands in contrast to the euphoria of government officials who in January described the latest outbreak of BSE in Europe as an “opportunity” for Argentine exports.

The government decided to ban imports of high or medium-risk foodstuffs from Europe, and warned that it would strictly control low-risk imports.

But the future impact of the current situation on Argentina’s exports is difficult to predict.

“The initial impact is negative, because consumers become wary, and stop buying,” Marcelo Filder, executive secretary of the Argentine Rural Society – which groups the country’s large stockbreeders – told IPS. “But once the confusion has passed, they will begin to seek out the beef with the greatest prestige, and we will have our chance.”

Filder recalled what occurred in 1997, when Britain admitted that eating beef from BSE-infected animals caused the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in human beings.

At that time, the same thing happened: consumption and prices plunged, after which they gradually began to recover, and Argentina started to win new market share.

Reports that the European Union was planning to slaughter and incinerate cattle – the equivalent of 800,000 tonnes of beef – was no cause for joy in Argentina.

The crisis unleashed by BSE, which attacks the nervous systems of cattle, triggered a fall in the value of one ton of the high quality fresh beef cuts exported to the EU under the so-called “Hilton quota” from nearly 9,000 dollars to 5,000, after which the price rallied to just over 6,000.

Enrique Mantilla, the president of Argentina’s Chamber of Exporters, told IPS that the short-term effect was negative, and that in order to win markets in the long-term, there was no room for complacency and sitting back to wait for new clients to simply show up to buy Argentine beef, as Filder implied.

“A positive effect will only be achieved in the long-term if the advantages of Argentine beef are marketed, and if the global market becomes divided between ‘trustworthy’ and ‘non-trustworthy’ countries. But that will take time, and requires strategy and budget,” said Mantilla.

“Exportation is not like the financial market,” he added. “When it comes to placing merchandise in other markets, everything occurs six months later, and as a result of planning and strategy.”

Argentina has much to do in order to step up the promotion and marketing of its products, said Mantilla. He pointed out, for example, that the idea for creating an Institute for the Promotion of Beef remained on paper.

He also criticised the government campaign which named famous athletes and artists like soccer superstar Gabriel Batistuta or world-renowned classical dancers Julio Bocca and Paloma Herrera as “ambassadors” for Argentine beef.

“If we try to show that Gabriela Sabatini was the world’s top tennis player because she ate meat, the Europeans can simply show us their own top tennis players, just as they have their own top models and famous artists,” said Mantilla.

The debate should not involve “public figures,” but nutritionists, dieticians, consumers and doctors, he argued. “This is a health issue, and it is about having serious and credible sanitary controls, with respected, reliable inspections and certificates.”

Mad cow disease is “a new phenomenon,” stressed Mantilla, one “that makes it possible for us to develop a new strategy, the success of which will depend on consumers, and on the way in which the international market ends up being segmented.”