Specialists from the livestock sector indicated today that the consumption of meat reached 118 kilos per person in the country this year, and that in total the five main meats invoice US$ 24,000 million annually.
According to a study by the Meat Table, made up of different associations, chambers and livestock entities, if bovine, pork, avian, ovine and fish meat are taken into account, the Argentine consumes 118 kilos per inhabitant per year.
Despite the fact that beef consumption has decreased in volume in recent years, its decline was offset by growth in poultry meat consumption.
The livestock consultant and member of the Meat Board, Victor Tonelli, indicated last night during a conference on the subject within the framework of the Rural Exhibition of Palermo, that the Argentine eats 48 kilos of beef, 46 kilos of chicken, 16 kilos pig, 7 kilos of fish and 2 kilos of sheep.
For Tonelli, “the entire livestock sector is going to promote each of the meats, and far from competing with each other, they are mutually beneficial partners.”
“Today chicken has equaled the consumption of beef, which is not news, but it does mark the extraordinary growth of what we once called alternative meats and today we simply call meat,” Tonelli said.
According to calculations by the Meat Board, today the production of animal protein exceeds six million tons, which represents an increase in volume of 20% compared to the middle of the last decade, said the specialist.
Currently, meat exports are equivalent to 17% of total production and allow the income of approximately US$ 3,500 million.
On the other hand, the turnover of all meat chains reaches US$ 24,000 million, and generates 717,000 jobs nationwide.
After the estimates, different chain actors spoke at the panel called “the meat business. The business vision”, in which they spoke about the current situation of the sector and its potential.
In the first place, the president of the Chamber of Slaughterers and Suppliers (Camya), Leonardo Rafael, highlighted the importance of the intermediary in the beef chain.
According to Rafael, there are 3,000 butchers operating, who are responsible for supplying 80% of the meat consumed in the domestic market, and denied that they are responsible for the rise in product prices.
In this sense, he explained that “the ceilings in prices that have been touched were due to a stagnation in the primary activity. It has been many years since the heads that were lost have risen. There is also an atomization in the retail and slaughtering part, where neighborhood and local businesses are sustained by evasion, and there is 80% marginality”.
For his part, the general manager of the Juramento Group emphasized the need for the classification of meat for its commercial and international takeoff.
“Without typification in Argentina we are going to continue selling commodities, while the producer protests about the price. We have to make the good earn more, so today we have to get out of the media carcass and the classification of South America. Let’s not have fear of classification,” he emphasized.
Representing the poultry sector, the vice president of the Center for Poultry Processing Companies (CEPA), Joaquín de Grazia, considered that the sharp increase in consumption was due to the aptitudes of the animals’ genetics.
“Today we are at 48 kilos of consumption and the virtues are in the product, starting with the price, which in our country is fundamental, but also in what we have done as an activity. We still have a lot to do and the presentation of the product is fundamental” , culminated in Grazia.
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