China imports bones worth of 15 milion dollars a months
Some 9,000 tons per month representing US$15 million. The sale of bones without meat from Argentina to China is around these values. This is a business that has grown as an alternative for the export refrigeration industry since the Government of Alberto Fernández began to intervene in the meat market with restrictions on sales abroad.
"Before, the bone with meat was exported, but when the export of several products was prohibited, including the fore and hindquarters with bone, and the bone with just one millimeter of meat was released, the industry began to sell them to respond to China's demand. Today it is already one more by-product, which has a large and constant volume," Miguel Jairala, economic and market advisor to the Consortium of Meat Exporters (ABC), told LA NACION.
In May last year, Fernández applied a 100% stocks to foreign sales with the excuse of stabilizing the price of meat in the domestic market. He excluded tariff quotas for Europe and the United States from that lock. Then he made the stocks more flexible with a quota of 50% and today, in addition to continuing "managed" exports, there is a ban on exporting seven popular cuts.
Jairala explained that, from the 6,000/7,000 tons of bone that were sold to China with "some meat" before the stocks, they went to approximately 9,000 tons "practically without any meat."
"The bones that are sold the most are paid by China between US$0.80 and US$1.20 per kilo. In September, about US$15 million entered the country from the sale of this by-product," he said. So far this year, considering October, there have already been shipments for some US$150 million.
Prices in that market were at higher levels, but with the retraction that the market had in recent months, they fell by around 45%. When the values were higher, the price of the exported ton of this product was around US$2,000. It was in the first part of the year. Then, with the drop in the market, it ended up being placed, as of last October, at around 1,300 to 1,400 dollars a ton.
Per animal, approximately 70 to 85 kilos of bones are extracted. According to the expert, the largest bones cannot be exported because they do not have all the meat film that would make them edible. According to Jairala, it is not very clear what they are used for in China, but with the bones there they usually make flour that in many cases is used for dehydrated products of animal origin such as soups.
Jairala indicated that the Asian giant is the main buyer of bovine bones from Argentina; it takes almost 100% of what goes abroad.
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