It is the business with the highest added value that Argentine beef has, worth almost US$300 million. This is the Hilton quota, made up of 29,400 tons of high-quality chilled beef cuts that Europe allocates to Argentina every year.
In the last fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, the refrigerators enabled for shipments were not able to comply with all shipments, after a period of six years in which they had managed to export one hundred percent of the assigned tons.
In that context, Córdoba’s performance was in the opposite direction. Two meat processing plants in the province authorized by the European market – Logros y Bustos and Beltrán – managed to export more than the volume granted.
For the current commercial year, the Logros meat processing plant, located in Río Segundo, had received a quota of 704.7 tons, while Bustos y Beltrán, with a plant in Juárez Celman, did not have an assigned volume but did have commercial possibilities.
In the 2023/2024 cycle, the Ministry of Agriculture had distributed a volume of 25,329 tons among 36 refrigerators, while 26 groups of producers, in partnership with authorized refrigerators, received 2,477 tons.
The remainder, 1,096 tons, became part of a freely available fund, to which those meat processing plants that, having met the initially assigned quota, wanted to carry out more operations could resort.
It was there where both Córdoba meat processing plants attended during the year to make more foreign trade sales.
Hilton quota: Córdoba, with the highest exported volume in seven years
“In the case of Logros, we had 704 tons awarded and we exported 949.9 tons, 34.9% more,” said José María Roca, manager of the meat processing plant located in Río Segundo.
Bustos and Beltrán, for their part, started the cycle without assigned tons, due to the criterion of past performance which takes the performance of shipments from the last three years to all destinations.
In the previous year (2022/2023), the meat processing plant had received 237 tons of the Hilton quota, as a new plant, but a penalty imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, for not reaching 60% by February 1, 2023. of the total volume shipped, prevented it from having an assigned quota for the current year.
Due to this penalty, the cycle started with zero tons, but with the possibility of accessing the freely available fund.
“Because it was a new plant, we had only one year of history and the distribution criteria reduced our chances; However, we decided to contribute to producing constantly, with which we used volume from the freely available fund and ended up certifying 202.5 tons,” highlighted Juan Manuel Beltrán, president of Bustos y Beltrán.
In this way, both meat processing plants managed to export a volume of 1,152.4 tons to the European market, 63.6% more than the 704 initially assigned.
This is the highest level of shipments from Córdoba since the last seven years. To find a greater volume, we must go back to the 2016/2017 financial year, when the figure was 1,200 tons.
Hilton quota: the reasons for non-compliance 2023/2024
When looking for reasons for non-compliance in shipments, the first in six years, although the prices per ton are good – around US$14 thousand per ton – the lack of heavy steers is the main reason that makes it impossible to comply with shipments.
The slaughterhouses assure that the decision of the National Agri-Food Health and Quality Services (Senasa) to remove from the registry of establishments producing certified export steers, due to the presence of intensive dining rooms (feedlots), decreased the supply of animals finished on pasture.
According to the information handled by the refrigeration industry, due to the fact that many plants were unable to comply with shipments, the availability fund and the volume that would not ultimately be sent to Europe would be 1,750 tons.
Although the Córdoba meat processing plants continue to produce for the European market, the date prevents new shipments from being certified for the current year, which ends at the end of the month. As most shipments are made by sea transport, any operation carried out in the next few days would reach its destination in July.
In the coming days, the Bieconomy Secretariat is expected to carry out the distribution of the 2024/2025 European quota.
The quota of high-quality chilled boneless beef that the country can export to the European continent is 29,389 tons annually. While for shipments to the territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 111 tons were allocated.
