MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay posts record beef exports over a billion US dollars

Uruguay meat exports marked a new record when they reached the billion US dollars totaling 476.448 tons on December 2nd. Uruguay's main clients this year have been United States and the Russian Federation.

A year ago meat sales had reached 801 million US dollars. Beef, lamb and mutton are Uruguay's main exports equivalent to almost a fifth of total overseas sales.

Official statistics show NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) with 277 million US dollars and the share of the US totaling 259 million US dollars. Nafta in 2006 purchased 31% of all of Uruguay's beef exports, which is considerably less than in 2005 when they represented 72%.

However it was Russia that soared from a meager less than 1% in 2005 to 20.7% this year equivalent to 184 million US dollars.

Mercosur also recovered as a significant client reaching 116 million US dollars this year, 14%, compared to 27 million in 2005 or 3.2%.

Chile also turned out to be a formidable buyer of Uruguayan beef jumping from five million in 2005 to 91 million US dollars this year.

Uruguay's impeccable sanitary record regarding foot and mouth disease has played a leading role in the country's beef exports both in volume and value, clearly overtaking regional competitors such as Brazil and Argentina.

Brazil has several states, particularly Matto Grosso do Sul, suffering from endemic outbreaks of FAM which have limited exports, and in Argentina President Nestor Kichner's administration policy of protecting domestic consumption from rising prices has led to the partial banning of exports.