After 17 years, Argentine beef had a gala evening in Washington

WASHINGTON.- The Embbady of Argentina has experienced a gala night as rarely in the historic home located on New Hampshire Avenue, very close to Dupont Circle, a district where embbadies abound in this capital. Government officials Donald Trump, businessmen and diplomats from Argentina and North America gathered in the main hall to celebrate and taste the arrival in the country.
for the first time in 17 years, an Argentine icon: Argentine beef.

"None of this would have happened without the very strong relationship between Argentina and the United States," said Argentine ambbadador Fernando Oris de Roa, the host.

A hundred people gathered at the Embbady to drink wine from Catena's cellar and eat an Argentine loin steak with a port sauce of mushrooms and asparagus and baked potatoes with Parmesan cheese. Dessert: pavlova with dulce de leche. The coffee was accompanied by "mini alfajorcitos" – as the menu says – and came after a tango show given by an Argentinian couple, Rosalia Gbado and Alejandro Barrientos, who had come mostly from Las Vegas.

The night marked a milestone for which it was not until 17 years ago: the return of Argentine meat to the American market, which materialized
with the arrival of a cargo of 500 kilograms of bull's eye, in Miami, at the end of last year. Earlier this month, Oris de Roa went to the port of Philadelphia to receive the first container.

"I looked around thinking" if only I could ask them to stay, "you represent 90% of my work," joked the ambbadador last night at the beginning of his speech.

Joking aside, Oris de Roa emphasized that the celebration would have been impossible without the close cooperation that the governments of Donald Trump and Mauricio Macri forged. Trump has allowed the entry of lemons and Argentine beef, but has nevertheless blocked purchases of biodiesel, the main product exported by Argentina. In addition, it has limited imports of steel and aluminum, although other countries have still closed them completely. Argentina, in turn,
allowed purchases of American pork.

"The support and encouragement we receive from this administration is probably unprecedented," Oris de Roa said.

He was heard by Elaine Chao, Trump's Secretary of Transportation; the leading US officials for Latin America Department of Defense, Sergio de la Peña, and State Department, Kimberley Breier; number two from the sales representative's office, C.J. Mahoney, and BID Invest president James Scriven. They all sat at the Oris de Roa table, alongside Ulises Forte, president of the Institute for the Promotion of Argentine Beef (Ipcva), which hosted the dinner .

Susan Segal, President and CEO of the Council of the Americas, was also present at other tables; Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Guillermo Bernaudo; the second vice-president of the Argentine Association of Angus, Sebastián Rodríguez Larreta, and the president and general director of the North American Meat Institute, Julie Potts, among other guests. Angus certified cuts were the main course of the dinner.

Bernaudo highlighted the "significant progress" that implied that Argentina was reintegrated into the US market. The country plans to cover the quota of 20,000 tons a year and Argentine businessmen have begun to move to reach more outlets. Among those interested: WholeFoods, supermarket chain Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the newspaper The Washington Post.

"We are very proud, as Argentines and as Meat Institute, to be able to hold this event, very proud to be back here with the Argentine beef in the United States," said Forte. at the beginning of his speech.

"And to deny that we say that the Argentineans are the best in the world, I want to tell you with total humility that we Argentineans do not have the best meat in the world, but that we compete with the best and that we are able to win them, "he concluded, accompanied salvo of applause and laughter.