That old custom of inviting to a barbecue | Beef consumption falls again

The consumption of beef registered an annual drop of 2.7 percent between March of this year and the same month of 2021, according to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Meats and Derivatives (Ciccra). The Ciccra report shows that in year-on-year terms there was a decrease in the consumption of beef of 2.7 percent, which reaches 12 percent when contrasted with the twelve months ending in March 2019.

In this sense, he specified that during March “the moving average of twelve months indicated an apparent consumption of beef per inhabitant of 47.7 kilograms per year.” The work prepared by the entity linked to the meat industry also highlighted that “the cattle slaughter had a drop of 1.8 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year.”

“The level of sectoral activity was 1.8 percent below that registered in January-March 2021, reaching a 2.6 percent year-on-year drop when corrected for the number of working days,” Ciccra reported.

During the first quarter of this year, “3.1 million heads of cattle farms” were slaughtered. The March numbers also show a drop of 3.8 percent in the year-on-year comparison, although it registers a rise of 2 percent compared to February, with the correction for working days.

In the third month of the year, the industry produced a total of 260,000 tons of bone-in beef, representing an improvement of 1.9 percent compared to February, but a drop of 2.2 percent in the year-on-year comparison. Quarterly bone-in beef production also fell (0.7 percent) from the same quarter in 2021.

“Assuming a total export of beef cuts of 190,900 tons of bone-in beef, there would have been 525,100 tons of beef left in the domestic market.

With regard to meat prices, in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Buenos Aires (AMBA), the 6.7 percent rise in the general level recently reported was similar to that recorded by the main cuts of beef surveyed by the Indec. The ones that increased the most were shoulder, rump and buttocks, with an average of 7.9 percent. In the case of roast meat, the increase was 5.8 percent and in the case of common minced meat, 4 percent.

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