Argentina Sends First Fresh Beef Shipment to US Market

Argentina has now sent beef to the U.S. for the first time in seventeen years. A 500kg (one half of a metric ton) consignment of ribeye was this week sent to Miami by Swift Argentina, a division of Brazilian beef giant JBS. News of the shipment comes just two weeks on from news that the USDA declared Argentina as eligible to resume shipments of raw beef. After a meeting with Swift executives, Argentine Agriculture Secretary Luis Miguel Etchevehere said it was ‘enormously satisfying’ that exports were getting underway so soon after being approved. He hailed the fact that the consignment was made up of high value cuts, while praising the private sector for ‘quickly investing in response to political breakthroughs’. “2018 will be remembered as a historic year for beef exporters. Argentina strengthened its position as the world’s sixth largest exporter and the second in Mercosur, and it was a year where beef exports grew by 70.1%,” the minister noted. Argentina now has a quota of 20,000 metric tons a year to access the U.S. market, exempt from duties. The Argentine agriculture ministry said the quota would be worth between $150 million and $180 million to exporters. Out-of-quota shipments will be subject to a tariff of 26.4%.