January 9, 2007

 

Argentina to start registry to monitor pork imports from Brazil

 

 

Argentina will implement a registry to monitor pork imports in response to complaints from local pork producers of dumping by Brazil, said Juan Uccelli, the president of the Argentine Pork Producers Association, or AAPP.

 

An Agriculture Secretariat spokesman said the resolution authorising the registry has not been issued yet, but it is in the final stages of implementation.

 

The registry will require pork importers to register shipments with the government.

 

"We asked the government to close all imports, but the government chose a compromise between what we asked for and what the importers wanted," Uccelli said.

 

The government is familiar with using these registries to control the market, he said.

 

In December, the government closed the registry for new-crop corn and wheat exports after a flood of export declarations. The closure is temporary, Agriculture Secretariat Miguel Campos said.

 

However, the government announced the creation of a registry of all domestic corn consumers, fuelling speculation that some measures will be taken to ensure domestic needs are met. Poultry, pork and feedlot cattle are the primary domestic consumers of Argentina's corn.

 

Argentina imported 18,000 tonnes of pork in 2006, 90 percent of which came from Brazil, Uccelli said. Argentina produced 270,000 tonnes of pork in 2006, he noted.

 

Argentine farmers complain that pork imports from the Brazilian province of Santa Catarina are being imported below cost because Santa Catarina saw its pork exports closed due to foot and mouth outbreak in neighbouring Parana Province at the end of 2005.

 

In August of last year, Santa Catarina was selling pork for 25 percent to 30 percent less than Rio Grande Do Sul province, Uccelli said.

 

"Argentina is the only market Santa Catarina can export to," he said.