Last October, barbecue was the cut that rose the most in price, up 4.2% per month. Followed by rump, whose price increased by 3.3% per month, and rump and shoulder (respectively by 2.3%). In the case of common ground beef, the increase was 1.2% per month. As far as frozen hamburgers are concerned, the increase was 4.6%, much lower than the double-digit monthly adjustments observed between April and September of the current year. For its part, the price of whole chicken increased by 4.9% compared to September.
In the inter-year comparison, the values of cuts of meat also grew at a slower pace than the general level of the CPI, repeating what was observed in the previous months. The price of roasts rose by 70.8% between October 2021 and October 2022, that of minced meat rose by 69.0%; that of the palette, 70.6%; that of rump, 72.2%; and that of the buttock, 70.1%.
Just last year the government intervened in the beef export market so that there was no shortage of meat in the domestic market and roasting was one of the priorities of the measure. The truth is that the market ended up declining due to the drought which forced producers to send more animals to slaughter, which resulted in a drop in the prices of live cows.
The truth is that however, if we compare October 2019 with October 2022, the contraction in consumption was as much as 7%. As explained in the sector, the drop in sales is due to a logical question of prices but also to the change in consumption habits.
Argentines today consume about 45 kilos per inhabitant per year of chicken and about 20 kilos of pork, the cumulative therefore exceeding 100 kilos per inhabitant per year. That is, a figure similar to that of the countries with greater purchasing power. The reconfiguration of consumption is a reality, but it is also true that there is a part of the population, the lowest social strata, which consumes less and less animal protein.
This is a major concern of the government and this is where the agreements with the refrigerators that unload the meat on the domestic market at popular prices come into play. A new deal for higher tonnages is planned for the year-end holidays which will seek to reach several outlets, mainly supermarket chains.
Finally, another key point regarding the beef business is that demand from China is declining sharply, which in turn is crushing international values for the product. The big medium-term concern for exporting meatpacking plants is that with depressed external demand and domestic demand with no resilience, their profit margins will be increasingly tight.
The coming year presents more of a challenge for the livestock and meat sector. Firstly, that consumption returns to the ideal of 50 kilos per inhabitant and that prices accompany a possible recovery in purchasing power. On the other hand, external demand remains stable, in a context of declining profitability and rising costs.
