“Tell me how you feel”: the irony of Brazil, to beat up Argentina in meat exports

Football and meat, two Argentinian emblems in the world, and the rivalry with Brazil, which will come back into play this Sunday, offer a surprising parallel, at the very moment when the detection of two cases of “mad cow” in the giant South America suspended their exports to China, the major destination affected by stocks provided by the Argentine government.

A video that went viral on social media, with a football story and Pelé’s celebration included, shows how the neighboring country was the world’s largest exporter in 2020, with more than 2.5 million tonnes, while Argentina sold less than 900,000 tonnes. Amarela’s green leadership in meat exports began in 2004, just before the gap started to widen, due to the decline in national volumes that determined Kirchnerist policies.

The meat of the world

In the process that takes into account the last 60 years, Brazil has become the world’s biggest seller of meat, not without gears and counter-gears. In the early 1980s, he reached second place, but soon after, he disappeared from the top places. He reached the top in 2003 and had some podium climbs between 2011 and 2017. In total, beyond the final photo, the film shows a sustained evolution.

While, our country was regressing from the first place it occupied until 1970, with 585 thousand tons. Since, he was no longer the world champion of meat, and showed pronounced peaks of decline, for example 15 years ago following the interventions of the former Secretary of Commerce, Guillermo Moreno. Another drop is already planned in the final figures for 2021, as soon as stocks of meat are built up established by the government of Alberto Fernández since May of this year.

According to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA, for its acronym in English), since the turn of the millennium, the South American giant has remained at the top of the ranking. Last year clearly first place: it shipped 2.5 million tonnes out of the 10,500 million that were traded around the world.

The video was posted on the Instagram account of PÁTRIA AgroNegócios, a Brazilian consulting company. The the pride that represents the first position for the country and for all breeders is on display. In addition, it is underlined that the stake of the South American giant is to valorize the proteins and to maintain the productive efficiency of the breeding activity.

Descent of the Albiceleste

Meanwhile, it is reflected that Argentina was in the first place from 1960 to 1970, then it positioned itself as the second largest exporter in the world from 1976 to 1984.

After the closure of exports in 2006 when administering Nestor Kirchner, it dropped out of the ranking of the top 10 exporters, to which it recently returned in 2017, under the government of Mauricio Macri.

When Argentina began to regain ground in this sector, especially with sales to China, the government of Alberto Fernandez determined a actions sales abroad, initially total and now partial. This resulted in a 45% drop in product shipments and an 8% drop in farm gate prices in two months.

Last Tuesday, the executive decided to extend the measure until October 31, while a report from the Institute for Economic Studies of Argentine Rural Society (SRA) indicated that since the restrictions began on April 15 , the interventionist measures the livestock market, the beef chain has accumulated losses due to US $ 1,084 million, that is to say more than 8 million US dollars per day.

The “mad cow” and the song in Mina Gerais

The image of Saturday, July 10, when the national team beat Brazil 1-0 and became Copa América 2021 champions after 28 years is still fresh in the memory of many: Lionel Messi happy, kneeling on the grass of the Maracana, when the referee marked the end of the match. It was a stark contrast to the sadness that seemed to have no end in 2014, on the same stage.

This afternoon, history will open a new chapter in São Paulo, where the albiceleste and Neymar’s team will meet again, Focus on the Qatar 2022 World Cup. It will be for the Qualifiers, a competition in which Brazil is leading, as in the world titles.

While, the meat championship is also still played, every day. Today Brazil is facing the challenge of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the disease known as “mad cow disease”, with cases detected in Mina Gerais and Mato Grosso.

Anecdote below: The famous song, “Tell me what it feel like” also appeared in Mina Gerais, as a preview of the match that Alejandro Sabella’s national team would play at the Minerao stadium in Belo Horizonte, against Iran , when the PSG star outbreaks made his best goal in the world: at the corner, halfway, when the game was dying in a draw.

Although Argentina wins today, they will not be able to catch up with Brazil. In football, as in meat, they have an advantage over us.