URUGUAY.
BEEF TRADE TO MARKET DIRECT.
By the end of 2009 the Uruguay beef industry will be selling beef direct to supermarkets in the EU, as opposed to meat wholesalers.
The locally packed retail packets of prepared beef, will have full tracabilty and brands on the packets, along with consumer data for supermarkets.
This will be done at the beef plants in Uruguay under Department of Agriculture supervision..
The announcement was made in December, by Ricardo Robana Deputy head of the technical services, from Uruguay’s National Meat Institute.
Currently all beef is sold to distributors in the EU, with information on the carton only, the new system will include all the packages of meat.
The approval and certification process by the EU, came through much faster than was anticipated from the authorities in Brussels.
Currently much of the beef from Uruguay is sold in Europe as Argentine beef, this new marketing will give Uruguay a distinctive brand of its own.
