IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY FOR THE ARGENTINE MEAT

Nowadays, the world food market is undergoing an intense reorganization process in which consumers demand that products meet the necessary quality requirements (both intrinsic and extrinsic) for a reliable and safe consumption. In this sense, it is estimated that the requirement regarding food safety will gradually increase, at the beginning in countries from the first world, spreading then to overseas suppliers. Regarding the meat market specifically, it can be observed that the incidents occurred recently, such as the ones related to BSE, Foot and Mouth Disease and E. Coli, not only impaired the beef image as foodstuff but also impacted on the consumer, who is replacing it with foodstuff of vegetable origin and/or other type of meat. As a consequence, and in view of this new global context, there arises the need to manufacture meat products which are auditable throughout the production cycle. In the particular case of Argentina, it is possible to see that this new context gives it great opportunities. On the one hand, it is given the chance to regain overseas buyers’ confidence, improve the positioning of its products in the international sphere and extend the Argentine meat target market. On the other hand, the current situation gives it the chance to regain its role as world top-quality meat provider (due to the pastoral production system prevailing in the country). So, PROGAN (Argentine Association for the Appraisal of Livestock Production) is set up in view of the need to become adapted to the new demands of the world market. PROGAN is made up of small and medium-sized cattle breeders from the Province of Santa Fe, associated to form a consortium and organized to add value to their production through quality and origin certification of their cattle. PRO-GANadoPROGAN set up was promoted by the Italian NGO AVSI (Associazione Volontari per il Servizio Internazionale) and the Argentine NGO ACDI (Cultural Integral Development Association), which is supported by the Italian entity and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization); Exportar Foundation; and the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank). It was mainly created to elaborate a product that highlights the typical attributes of the Argentine meat and divulge its qualities in demanding markets. In order to be able to reach a competitive positioning, it was necessary to group producers into a consortium so as to meet the volume, continuity and uniformity requirements for the delivery of the product, requested by high purchasing power markets. Simultaneously, and in order to meet food sanity requirements, PROGAN, under the supervision of Parma University (Italia), drew up a Sanitary-Health Code. That production standard protocol makes it possible to homogenize a product with differential features and create, at the same time, a correlation between the different links in the production chain, from breeding, fattening and/or the whole cycle, to the transportation and industrial sector. The Sanitary-Health Code recommends the producer to implement a single method for the handling, feeding and sanity of his cattle divided into categories (cows, calves, steers, etcetera). So, by applying that protocol and acting the links of the production chain in a coordinated way, it is possible to get a safe, top quality product, suitable to be marketed abroad, particularly in the European Union (EU). The IT system applied by PROGAN throughout its marketing chain, from the cattle breeder to the end consumer, is called Trazar. It has several objectives that are translated into benefits for the different actors (producer, Consortium, consumer). On the one hand, the animal identification in the field, its recording in a database and its follow-up until getting the shelf, benefit consumers since they have the possibility of knowing the origin of the product they are buying. Thanks to the information contained in the label, the buyer can trace the chosen cutting beef history through the Internet, making sure it meets all the food innocuousness conditions. On the other hand, this process helps the producer in that it provides him with the tools to implement a sanitary preventive plan, optimize the use of resources and increase the profitability of his production system. For example, the producer can draw up a growth curve (animal weight evolution through time) that makes it possible to diagnose the use given to the feed offer; register and control the animal’s sanitary history in a thorough way; evaluate the production and reproduction effectiveness of his herd. Finally, the Trazar system benefits the Consortium since it acts as a device that stores information about marketed products in a tidy, safe, reliable and auditable way. As a result, an organized, neat and clear production and sales management is possible.ConclusionsNowadays, it is essential for a cattle breeder to incorporate a new entrepreneurial vision to his business. Good production is no longer enough. It is essential to focus on the marketing of the product, and therefore, he must adapt himself to the requirements of the market. Progan is one of the emerging alternatives to face this fact. This project has been described in this article so as to air the existence of a tangible program that gives the producer the opportunity of entering markets with a differentiated product and, therefore, overcome the barrier of individualism, which has only weakened the primary Argentine cattle breeding production. To sum up: any cattle breeder that wants to remain active in the world market, will have to understand that the saying “when spiders unite they can tie down a lion”, has become a sine quanon condition for production and marketing development.(*) Carlos Lowenstein, veterinarian graduated from Universidad Nacional del Litoral, School of Veterinary; Progan supervisor-auditor, Santa Fe Northern-central area.

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