POULTRY EATING TRENDS
Argentina’s poultry producers
confident in growth
The last decade has seen a transformation in the country’s poultry production.
ADALBERTO ROSSI, CÁTEDRA AVÍCOLA, ARGENTINA; TRANSLATED BY MARK CLEMENTS
The Argentinian poultry industry has recorded sustained growth over the last decade,
underpinned by a solid foundation of strategic
planning. In 2010 alone, it registered daily
slaughter numbers of 2. 5 million birds, consumption on the home market stood at 37 kg
per capita per annum, it achieved 310,000 tons
of exports to 67 markets, it obtained credits
for the sector and started a second strategic
plan for the period to 2017. Additionally, the
sector entered
into something
even bigger – a
national project.
Ten years
ago it was very
dif;cult for the
industry to gain
access to overseas markets,
explains Roberto
Domenech,
president of the
industry association the Centro de Empresas
Procesadoras Avícolas.
❯❯
Roberto Domenech,
president of the Argentinian poultry industry
association
Economic model changes
Across all sectors of the economy,
the exchange rate resulted in a process of
concentration that favored the strongest.
However, at the edge of the economic
model, the poultry industry had two main
weaknesses before the introduction of ;xed
exchange rates, says Domenech. “The ;rst,
and the most important, comprised ongoing
economic crises which were strongly linked
to the second problem - the sector’s inability
to manage its inventory,” he says.
The industry’s capacity altered according
to the season, or as a result of advances in
genetics, or as a result of feed costs. In simply
a matter of days, the volumes supplied were
altered. In this context, when there was oversupply with only low or average consumer
demand, producers started to lose part of
their working capital.
“Automatically, producers would cut
back production and lower their prices.
This resulted in increasing consumer demand and, when demand grew, producers
responded. However, consumers lacked
loyalty – they bought when it suited them
and went away when prices started to
rise again. We were working against the
relationship that we wanted to have with
consumers.”
;xed exchange rates, we needed to tackle
various dif;culties, such as the impossibility of securing maize and soya but, on top of
this, there was another problem that needed
to be addressed – how were the debts to
producers to be paid? Over the last decade,
the country has put behind it what it had
become - practically bankrupt.” During To see the original article in Spanish, read: La avicultura en Argentina y sus perspectivaswww.WAT TAgNet.com/23457.htmla e r p
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Toward the end
of 2001, Argentina’s
economic model
failed resulting in
social and economic
crises, and it was decided to put a full stop
to one of the most damaging economic
models ever implemented.
Domenech continues: “With the end of
the second half of 2002, normality began
to return, largely due to the adoption of a
new exchange rate model and the introduc-
tion of the peso.
Growing up
Some conclusions were reached from
carrying out an analysis of the state of the
industry.
“To escape from the recurrent crises, we
had to have greater participation in export
markets and not limit ourselves to the home
market. Moreover, this participation had to
