Half-Beef Conclusion: The system for marketing meat is changing and they promise it will help bring down prices

As reported Infobay, There will be changes in beef sales from November 1. The move will be implemented through a joint resolution of the Ministries of Labour, Agriculture and Productivity Development dated April 21, 2021, which created deep differences in the chain at the time.

From this end, half the carcasses are removed and animals weighing less than 32 kg are cut into pieces or quartered to reach the meat consumer. Exporters of refrigerators, which are in favor of the initiative, point out that it will benefit workers. They stop carrying around 100 kg of meat on their shouldersThis will result in economic benefits, greater health protection is guaranteed, as it prevents the meat from being dragged on surfaces when it comes from the truck to the point of sale, and the efficiency of the sector will be improved and created in this way. Price drop over the counters.

For all this, There are marketing departments that express their differences with the official decision. Other actors in the cold chain must maintain half the carcass using a mechanical system to reduce the pieces to stores. On the other hand, there are butchers and suppliers who claim that costs increase to accommodate cutting, preparing plants and transportation.

In the last few hours, during an interaction with a group of journalists, Members of the ABC Argentina Meat Exporters Federation said the quarterly system “does not increase the price of meat and guarantees better supply in the domestic market. In addition, outlets and butchers can get their customers the rooms they need most in the area and avoid waste. When the meat is unloaded from the truck to the point of sale, it prevents the meat from being pulled on it, ensuring greater hygiene.

On the other hand, they said from the ABC that currently semi-beef butchers are increasing the price of cuts that have low demand from consumers, so that the profitability of the business is not affected. Quarterly they will purchase products based on customer demand. In other words, butchers have access to the most popular cuts and consumers get products at a more accessible value.

“The quarter is a milestone for greater efficiency, modernizing our industry and the first step towards selling through cuts, which is already being successfully used in other countries and in supermarkets,” said Mario Ravetino. Chairman of the ABC Federation, while defending the official rule. “We use what the world is doing, where important results have been achieved,” he added. Currently, the president recalled, there are two countries in the world that market meat through the media carcass: Argentina and Paraguay.

“Curdio is a milestone for greater efficiency, modernizing our industry and the first step to achieve sales through cuts already successfully used in other countries and supermarkets” (Mario Ravetino)

However, as far as prices are concerned, with the new system of meat marketing, it has been ensured that the lowest values ​​and the most vulnerable sectors benefit the most. In this regard, the export refrigeration industry said Current media “punish consumption aimed at popular cuts, Charging relatively higher prices through cutbacks than supermarkets offer under distribution system. In this sense, a reduction of $1700 per kg is subsidized by $236, while the popular consumption of $800, enjoys a surcharge of $160.

Incompetence

Miguel ZairalaExpert in livestock issues, “LA media res is not only inefficient as a distribution system, it is also regressive in terms of income distribution”. For example, he argued that if you buy peseto at a butcher shop you save $226 per kilo, but you pay $160 more per kilo for generic meat. And he added: “Converting certain cuts into ground meat also creates potential losses in purchasing power: converting loin or square loins into specialty minced meat represents a $300 per kilogram value capture loss, which impacts potential losses. $10 in purchasing power over the animal creates damage to the producer. “, he added.

“Half the corpse is incompetent and reactionary” (Jairala)

Secondly, Jairala warned of the impact of inefficiencies in the chain, For example, “The cost of transporting meat to the domestic market is approximately $50,000 worth of local cargo loaded into a 10-meter box or container. Capacity is 100 half-carcasses, with an approximate gross weight of 10,000 kg. The payload is only 7 tons, and 30% ends up as waste: fat and bone. Net transportation The cost is $7.15 per kg.If that truck were to carry quarters, capacity utilization would be more efficient and it would unnecessarily load 11 tons instead of 10 tons, but the incidence of freight already drops to $6.49/kg.

And he concluded: “All the environmental benefits derived from the optimization should be added to the higher efficiency of transport ($3 per kg).. Bone and fat are used commercially by the meat processing industry but are disposed of as waste by butchers. Inefficient use of transport capacity has an impact of $3 per kg. Losses due to the inability to sell certain products, such as anatomical cuts and cutting them, have a variable impact, which can reach $10 or more per kilogram.

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