Work cooperatives in the meat sector do not have a good reputation, because they are often used as a front by business groups that take advantage of the benefits.
In Field Bugs we found a work cooperative that manages a refrigerator and works like a violin. This is the Paraná Limited Refrigerator Employees Cooperative, Cotef, which was born in 2017 after it presented the call for creditors of another cooperative that managed that establishment and that did not reach an agreement with the creditors.
The employees then decided to make their compensation available to start the company, although they also received some help, “which was not easy to achieve, because this figure is not well regarded,” acknowledged Lorena Góngora, his secretary.
It happens that behind this figure of a workers’ cooperative hide operators who do not pay taxes, buy in black and also pay their employees in black and poorly. This seems to be the opposite case.
Those employees of the old Butchers Supply Cooperative suddenly became the 107 associates of the firm who have many more responsibilities than that of an employee.
Coordinating those responsibilities and functions was not easy. “We had to resort to group and individual psychological support and despite the difficulties that it implied and the problems of the economy, we moved forward and we have growth projects,” said Góngora.
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The establishment slaughters 4,500 cattle per month between the farm that they buy directly or at the fair auctions and what the users contribute. They distribute the meat with their own fleet of trucks. Half cattle, also quarters, come out of the factory and are also vacuum packed.
The refrigerator is for federal transit, so in addition to selling in Entro Ríos, they sell meat in Misiones, Corrientes, Santa Fe, and they came to serve customers in Mendoza and San Juan.
Part of this production is sold in the two butcher shops that opened in Paraná to reach the public directly. By integrating this link, they lower costs, improve the margin and reach the consumer with a better price.
This is the history of the recovery of the cooperative, told by its members.
“We are working and developing with many projects and betting on the country despite the problems our economy has,” said the Cotef secretary.
One of those dreams is coming true. It is about the marketing of beef medallions or hamburgers with their own brand, since it is “a product in high demand among young people.” To develop it they had to invest in machinery and make the corresponding adaptations. “We are close to finding the right recipe” and thus launch the product on the market, confided the associate, but “the demand is there.”
They also hope to export: “It is a dream that we hope to realize shortly. We want to carry it out as soon as possible, we have to accommodate some issues, since that requires a significant investment, but the country’s economy and for now does not allow us to risk so much.”
Góngora also referred to the debate around the chopping of the half beef promoted by the ABC Exporters Consortium and which had the support of official officials, although now it was left to see.
“We support the care of the staff, of the worker, you have to take care of the people. But we believe that it is not the way. He promoted it by saying that the price of meat was going to become cheaper, which is impossible because it will mean higher costs, ”she clarified.
“We point to the mechanical means as an option for chopping, thus avoiding cost increases in an economy that already has high inflation and the worker would stop loading half cattle,” he concluded.
