The last peak in beef consumption was recorded in 2009 when Argentines ate about 70.3 per inhabitant per year, 13 years later consumption fell no less than 22.6 kilos per inhabitant per year. It is also true that there is currently a greater supply of alternative meats, at more convenient prices, such as pork and chicken, which were gaining ground on the tables. But that’s not all, because these products have also been showing rapid increases in recent months.
According to the IPCVA, the price of fresh chicken showed very significant increases, with a variation of (+15.1%) in March compared to February. For its part, the price of pork breast recorded values with moderate increases in the same period, advancing (+4.7%) compared to the previous month. Compared to the values of March 2021, chicken increased its price by 52.6% and pork by 51.1%.
That is to say, basic and essential consumer products for the basic basket cannot detach themselves from the inflationary dynamics and even show remarks. This is the case of beef, which to date shows a year-on-year increase of just over 60%, which exceeds general inflation.
Meanwhile, and despite the controls stipulated by the Government that determines that seven cuts of popular consumption, such as roast, vacuum and matambre, among others, cannot be exported, prices do not stop rising on the shelves. The scope of the so-called Popular Prices program in which industry and supermarkets spend barely 5% of national consumption at subsidized prices seems little.
On the other hand, taking into account the restrictions stipulated by the Government on exports, refrigerators are far from going through a crisis. The key is high international prices. According to the CICCRA survey, beef exports recovered in February and totaled 46,900 tons of product weight. This volume was 2.5% higher than that registered in February 2021. Meanwhile, when measured in tons of bone-in beef, exports were equivalent to 66,600 tons (+3% annual; +2.00 tons of bone-in beef). In turn, income from beef sales abroad amounted to US$266.6 million last February. When comparing with the same month of 2021, an improvement of 41.8% was registered, explained almost entirely by the increase in the declared average price.
While in February 2021 a value of US$4,113 per product weight ton had been declared, in February 2022 it reached US$5,690 (+38.3%). For its part, the measurement in tons of bone-in beef yielded a unit value of US$4,003 in February of the current year (+37.6% per year).
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