September 3, 2007

 

Poor cattle quality threatening Argentine beef exports

 

 

Agricultural economics may be spoiling a good steak in Argentina.

 

Argentine ranchers are driving their world-famous cattle herds to the swamps and scrubland of the country's north as they turn the grassy plains of the central Pampas from soy and corn, which are more profitable.

 

To help herds withstand the heat and poorer pastures of their new homes, the ranchers are cross-breeding Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle, which have produced the country's renowned beef, with Brahman strains from India and Brazil.

 

Julio Mouremble, a rancher in Buenos Aires Province and vice president of the Argentine Shorthorn Association fears that their "world class herds are losing quality".

 

Alejandro Garcia, a promoter for the expansion of livestock for the provincial government of Formosa said cattle animals in swamps have to deal with vampire bats and poisonous snakes.

 

This year, piranhas have currently added to their woes. As many as 40,000 cattle whose regular pastures were flooded have died, either through starvation or because of infected wounds from piranha bites, according to Victor Hugo Ruiz, who represents ranchers in Bañado La Estrella, a swampy area near Formosa's border with Paraguay.

 

The herds' forced migration north has enabled Argentina's grain and oilseed industry to grow almost 50 percent in the past four years as rising demand for soybeans and corn from China drove up world prices.

 

Agriculture secretary Javier de Urquiza said the shift enabled Argentina in 2006 export about US$9 billion worth of soybeans and soybean products, accounting for almost a fifth of the country's total exports. Argentina is the world's third-largest soybean exporter after the United States and Brazil.

 

In the past 15 years, 10 million hectares, or 24.7 million acres, of Pampas - an area roughly two and a half times the size of Switzerland - have been plowed up, said Luciano Miguens, president of the Argentine Rural Society, the country's biggest farm association.

 

The World Wide Fund for Nature, based in Gland, Switzerland, said over-farming of the Pampas was endangering the wildlife, including South American ostriches, pumas and wildcats, and had destroyed most native grass.

 

Argentina's ranches and the gauchos who worked the Pampas helped define the country's traditions and identity - as well as their eating habits. Argentina's per-capita beef consumption is the highest in the world at about 60 kilos, or 132 pounds, a year.

 

The exodus from the Pampas means Argentina's north is now home to more than a third of the country's cattle, compared with less than 10 percent five years ago, said William Mayer, a livestock department official at the government of Chaco, a northern province.

 

Brangus, the mix of India's Brahman cattle with Aberdeen Angus, is the species that bests adapts to the summers in Chaco, where temperatures hit 40 degree Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

 

Still, the cross-breeding results in the flesh being less tender than pure Angus, said Carlos Fern¨¢ndez Pazos, head of the Argentine Brangus Association.

 

Malcolm Fraser-Harris, who sells premium Argentine beef to Harrods department store in London, said Argentine meat is now slightly coarser and the old quality is now more difficult to find.

 

The quality of Argentine beef may also be declining as a greater portion of steers are fattened in feedlots instead of being free to graze. The largest US beef processor, Tyson Foods, announced a joint-venture investment this year with Cresud in Argentina to produce feedlot beef.

 

The meat from Argentina's grass-fed cattle is leaner and more flavorful than feedlot beef, which is marbled with fat, said Diego Moyano, executive chef at La Cabaña, a Buenos Aires restaurant.

 

Argentina president N¨¦stor Kirchner, is also contributing to the problem of high-quality beef industry, said Alberto de las Carreras, vice president of Argentina's Chamber of Exporters. In 2006, Kirchner capped exports and imposed price controls to ensure Argentine consumers had adequate supplies of beef. Argentina shipped 26 percent less beef last year than in 2005.

 

Victor Inza, who manages Estancias Santa Rosa, near Buenos Aires, said he was still nostalgic for the herds that used to roam much of the farm's 12,000 hectares. Nowadays, most of the land produces crops, and just a few cattle are kept on areas that are prone to flooding.