Beef consumption is down almost 16% this year so far in the country, where beef has always been an essential part of the social fabric, along with soccer and mate tea. Consumers are taking decisions thinking just about their wallets,” said Miguel Schiariti, president of local meat chamber, CICCRA, who expected meat consumption to remain depressed. “Beef consumption has been dropping quite sharply recently,” he added, blaming inflation and the economic slump. By far the top buyer of Argentine beef is China, though it imports cheaper cuts not used domestically. Milei, a free market economist who calls himself an anarcho-capitalist, ended the previous Peronist government’s freeze on beef prices.

Source: Bueno Aires Herald June 22, 2024 20:05 UTC