ARGENTINA THE WORLDS BEST KEPT SECRET
Shaped like a Leg of Lamb with the shank pointing south, Argentina is the second largest country in South America.
The climate is identical to that of Australia, with the exception of the wonderful rainfall in the Argentine, which for some unknown reason seems to come at night and be blown dry every morning, by the south Atlantic winds.
The country is around one third the size of the United States, the population is 45 million with 12 million, living in the capital Buenos Aires.( which means Good Air),on the banks of the River Plate (Rio Plata),in the north of the country.
Argentina was the wealthiest country of earth per populate, until the 1950’s and enjoyed commonwealth status with England, without the regulations or bureaucracy of a commonwealth country.
The opulence in Buenos Aires today is second to none, the Colon Theatre, which is on par,
with La Scala in Milan, was built with marble imported from Italy by Italian masons, who were especially located here for the duration of the construction in 1908.
The economy was built on beef and leather, which has been exported all over the world since1890, again is not unlike Australia and the sheep’s back syndrome.
The meat plants were initially all in the city of Buenos Aires, however today like Australia the plants have moved to the country, where the cattle are fattened. The export of hides is forbidden and the leather is all tanned in the Argentine, creating thousands of jobs in the largest leather industry in the world.
The cattle population is around 63 million head, with 80 pc of the beef consumed on the domestic market.
The export trade has been built around the duty free, Hilton Quota for the European Union, since 1983 when democracy returned to the country, after a brutal Military Dictatorship where 30,000 people were murdered or disappeared without trace.
The Hilton Quota is 28,000 tons of beef allowed into the EU each year, without import duty and the value to the Argentina economy is half a billion US dollars per year.
The Hilton cuts are only the round cuts topside, silverside, thick flank (round), rump. Loin and fillet, from prime steers carcass weight 270 kilos upwards.
This leaves the pistola flank and forequarter for the domestic market, where the flank is cut bone in and called assado, which is sold in strips, similar to giant spare ribs and the most popular beef cut in the country for Barbeque. This again is like Australia, every home has a Barbeque which are called assado’s and everyone eats outside in the summer months from October to March.
This tradition stems from the Colonial days, when the farmers had the prime cuts of beef and the farm workers were given the off cuts. Perhaps the biggest tragedy in Argentina today, is the divide between rich and poor, 5pc of the population, control 95pc of the wealth.
The minimum wage is US$400 per month, however a top slaughter-man or beef boner would earn around U$500 per month, for killing or boning top tally every day.
The retail butcher would earn around AUS$350 per month, starting at 9 am until 1 pm, then going for his siesta (afternoon nap) returning at 5 pm until 9 pm six days per week.
The beef industry was pioneered by the Vestey Organization, based London and headed by Lord Vestey. Vestey controlled the farms with his London-Argentine Land Company, the beef industry with Union Cold Storage and Blue Star Beef Company, the leather with Three Crowns Leather and the shipping on his own Union Castle Shipping line.
One cannot talk about Argentina and not mention corned beef, this was in fact the By Product, from making beef extract in the form of Oxo cubes and Bovril, the goodness had been taken from the beef and the balance was put in tins.
It was not until the outbreak of the first world war, that a use was found for corned beef, in feeding the Troops on the Western front and in Gallipoli.
The famous brand Fray Bentos, is the name of the small town in Uruguay, where the Leibig family founded Oxo and had their first slaughterhouse in 1895.
The average butchers shop takes in its beef in sides as opposed to quarters and will cut around 15 cattle per week, the cattle are killed as vealers or yearlings, weighing around 340 to 380 kilos live.
This tradition means the farmers can sell cattle at 12 months old keeping their cash flow moving, as well as finishing heavy cattle for the export market,
With the main breed being Angus followed by Hereford, there is a good supply of quality cows available, that are sold as prime beef in the poor neighborhood’s of Buenos Aires.
The average Argentine consumes 69.5 kilos of beef per year, which is a butchers dream, compared with 24 kilos per person in the EU countries.
In 1967 the English government blamed the November outbreak of foot and mouth, on the bones of Argentine beef and banned the import of Argentine beef in frozen carcass form.
The beef plants had no boning facilities at the time, however with German engineering specialists, Argentina invented the Cryvac packaging system and Swissvac, enabling them to export chilled carton boneless beef.
This took 5 years in the transformation and crippled the country’s economy, just when things looked good, and the market was developed in the UK, for boneless vac-pac beef, England joined the EEC in 1972, meaning Argentina lost its main beef market.
Australia and NZ had Commonwealth Status and despite the massive blow to their UK sales, they were given a pitifully small quota into the UK market. This was not the case for Argentina who was cut off completely from the English market. This was the beginning of the end for the Argentine economy, culminating in the worlds biggest IMF default in on December 21 st 2001.
Where Australia has the Red Center, Argentina has Patagonia in the south of the country, which is akin to the Moors of England and Ireland sparse and cold, only fit to carry sheep for grazing.
Patagonia runs 12 million sheep today and has built a thriving export lamb trade to Spain and Italy, frozen carcass the same as NZ.
In 1926 the first Merino sheep were imported to Patagonia, that winter they all died with the cold weather, Patagonia is in close proximity to the Antarctic. The solution was found by crossing the Merino rams with the Corredale ewes, from the moors of north Yorkshire, in England, who could handle the cold weather, while the Merino rams were housed for winter, the rest is history.
The economic recovery since December of 2001 is amazing, the peso had been devalued by 75pc and the country was bankrupt, owing the IMF US$145 billion on which it defaulted.
Whilst salaries are low, everything is relative, a kilo of mince beef costs US$1.50 or topside US$3.20, sirloin US$4.0, a kilo of potato’s US$1.0 or a kilo of tomato’s 50 cents and a litre of milk US$50 cents. 20 Marlboro cigarettes US$1.0.
Live cattle today are costing on average U$80c/kg to 90c/kg, Giving you a side of beef at US$1.60 per kilo killing out at 55%.
Cattle can stay out all winter in the mild climate, however it’s the quality of the grass that does the business, you see fields of cattle up to there knees in good grass, they don’t have to walk more than 100 paces in their lives, to eat all the food they can handle.
Unfortunately many farmers are leaving the beef industry currently, to cash in on the lucrative crops of soybean and wheat, with the prices having doubled for commodities in the last year.
The beef industry is 90pc owned by American and Brazilian Companies today this transition has happened over the last two years, Cargill, Tyson Foods and of course JBS_Swift are the main players.
There has been a farmers dispute over export taxes in Argentina lasting four months, from March to July this year.The majority of farme
