After almost six months of negotiations, the 15 member nations of the European Union have officially
allowed the entry of 10,000 additional tons of Argentine beef. This was expressed by Council of Ministers of the block during the past week, allowing a total of 38,000 tons of beef of the Pampas region to reach European
supermarkets, paying a fee of only 26% against 130% they would pay if they weren't included in the Hilton quota.Proceedings for increasing the total amount –for one year at first- were initiated in February, when
European authorities decided to reopen the market to Argentina. The country had to drastically suspend shipments during several months as a consequence of a new outburst of Foot and Mouth disease, or FMD. The economic
damage for local activities was disastrous. Some meat processing plants were forced to close their doors, over 5,000 employees lost their jobs and the chain of payments was completely broken.
Before the decision
recently adopted, Argentine cattle producers had already begun to recover after the reappearance of FMD, but these 10,000 extra tons will improve the sector's panorama, one of the only that presents interesting
perspectives considering the harsh and persistent Argentine crisis.
This "compensation" –as qualified by Europeans- which begins on July 1st
and will continue for a year, represents revenue, not previously contemplated, of close to $40 million.
The goals of public and private actors of the sector are now concentrated on two points. On one side, turning
the "extraordinary" increase into "definitive" and this way Argentina will be the country with the highest beef quota designated by the EU. On the other hand, exporters will try to sustain the international price that
during the past months has inevitably fallen. Historically, the value of Hilton cuts per ton was close to $7,000. This month, mainly in Germany, its price was merely $2,700 per ton.
Harsh negotiations
At the beginning of May, not every member country of the European block was in agreement on higher quota for Argentina. France, Austria, Ireland and Belgium were the nations that openly expressed their fear
of renewing the increase year after year and, finally damaging their own cattle chains which have been persecuted by health problems such as FMD and "mad cow", among other issues.
The European News Agency "Europe"
published the following at the beginning of May: "Mainly France has requested the Commission to be precise with its intentions of an eventual redirection of the measure, also judging it better not to renew it for over a
year." The same source also pointed out that Austrian authorities proposed, in opposition to reopening the European market to Argentine meat, to study viable "exits" for placing "stocks of European beef in other
countries."
It isn't hard to imagine that the reluctance of some governments for setting the Argentine Hilton quota on 38,000 tons will be very high. Political and social factors affect this point in an unsatisfactory
way for the country. Meanwhile, Argentina is getting ready to face an important challenge: fulfilling the assigned number and looking forward to conquering Europe with the excellence of its beef.
E-campo.com
