Meat trap: Minister Basterra dispensed with speaking live at a congress

In the midst of the closure of meat exports ordered yesterday by President Alberto Fernández, the Nation’s Agriculture Minister Luis Basterra apologized for participating this morning in a live opening of the Maizar congress, which will take place done virtually.

As it happened, Basterra has reportedly argued scheduling issues to attend the event, although he will then attend another conference already taped in advance in the afternoon.

There were expectations with Basterra’s presence after the measure that will cripple overseas sales for 30 days.

Due to the export shutdown, the Liaison Council decided this morning to cease marketing livestock for seven days.

According to what he was able to reconstruct THE NATION, the Agriculture portfolio did not participate in the decision-making which led to the brake on exports. The technicians in this portfolio know that the most exported cuts are not those consumed in the country. In fact, it was the Ministry of Productive Development headed by Matías Kulfas that made the measure known in a statement.

Without Basterra at the start of the congress, Alberto Morelli, chairman of Maizar, spoke of the government’s measure.

“Unfortunately, today we wake up with extremely negative measures for the whole chain. A measure that we have already experienced in the past and that we categorically reject, such as the closure of beef exports ”, He said.

“The result is known, loss of confidence in our destination markets which took us years to reopen, loss of income for the country, loss of jobs, loss of investments and stocks in the livestock chain. In short, once again, we are going in the opposite direction of development and growth, ”he added.

Morelli called the authorities “For them to reconsider and re-examine this unfortunate and incongruous measure for the economic moment the country is going through.”

In this context, samples of rejections from the land to the export brake follow. In a statement, the Rural Society of Rosario said: “Once again the government acts without consultation and prematurely shuts down meat exports, it should be noted that this also closes the confidence of Argentina’s agribusiness sector.”

“Once again, the price of beef was center stage, as one of the culprits of current inflation. This happened in March 2006 and the same recipe for shutting down beef exports was applied. It should also be remembered that it had a devastating effect on the activity, causing the loss of 20% of the cattle herd. In a short time and in the face of the shortage, the meat again increased and exceeded the values ​​before the closure, ”he added.

Among other entities, the Confederation of Rural Associations of Santa Fe (Carsfe) stressed that “the solution does not lie in the fanciful idea of ​​a government stupidly resolving the closure of exports, but by understanding, once and for all, that the meat market needs clear rules of the game in order to be able to develop, increase its stock and thus comply with domestic supply and foreign markets ”.