Whaddam I gonna do with all this beef?

In case you were wondering what I was talking about in my most recent post to mention beef, you can read a little from the cattlenetwork.com (yes, darling. There IS a cattlenetwork.com) which puts up a wire from Dow Jones on the sad state of the beef producer in La Argentina.

The average Argentine eats about 66 kilograms of beef, the highest rate of consumption in the world. In March, President Nestor Kirchner banned all beef exports to prevent soaring domestic and international demand from pushing beef prices up. The restrictions were progressively eased and now exports are limited to about 70% of 2005 levels. In addition, the government has been circulating a list of reference prices for certain cuts, which vendors at the nation's principal slaughterhouse, Liniers, are "recommended" to honor.

However, volumes at Liniers have plunged, as farmers turn to smaller regional markets or are withholding stocks due to the price controls.

In January, just 85,698 cattle were processed at Liniers, compared to 151,579 during the same period last year, according to the Agriculture Secretariat.

Those last two figures should give you an idea of how bad it's gotten. We're doing the same thing...withholding animals from sale and selling at more local auctions rather than send them to the tremendous old Mercado de Liniers up in the Buenos Aires barrio de Mataderos.

If I was K, I might be doing something along the same lines... hoping that maybe the ranches will eventually fill up with so many cows that there will be enough to both export and keep local prices low.

But I can't help but think that this will hurt the industry in the long run. If the day comes when the Aussies take the title of world's biggest beef eaters (they already are the world's biggest meat eaters) I can't help but think that the current policy won't be considered to have backfired.

I have no idea if it's related or not but I have not been able to buy a fine bife de chorizo in my cheto supermarket for the last few days.

Argentina's beef producers reduced investment by $300 million in 2006, down 33% from a year earlier, according to the Argentine Rural Society, or SRA.

Beef producers have cut investment in infrastructure, pastures, genetics, fertilizers and other inputs in response to the government measures, according to the SRA.

Anybody wanna buy a cow?