Page Seven / La Paz
The marketers of beef and cattle producers of Santa Cruz reached an agreement to lower the price of the kilo hook from 24 bolivianos to 20 or 20.5 bolivianos, while in other regions the sellers of the product mobilized in rejection of the increase in price.
The national leadership of the butchers hopes that this will have an impact and be consolidated throughout the country, but insists on the closure of the auction centers.
In a meeting promoted by the mayor Jhonny Fernández, the Federation of Cattlemen of Santa Cruz (Fegasacruz) and the leadership of the meat sector it was defined to dispense with intermediaries and work directly with the municipal slaughterhouse.
The president of Fegasacruz, Alejandro Díaz, reported that the meeting agreed that the price increase has to do with intermediation.
“It is important that supply and demand, we have seen that it is convenient to remove the intermediation chain that many times unnecessarily raised prices. We have stated that if the price of cattle is at an average price of 20 to 20.50 bolivianos per kilo hook, it would not be detrimental to either of the two parts of the chain. It seeks to return to price parameters that existed before ”, he specified.
The leader of the meat traders, Luis Álvarez, said that with a lower price per kilo hook, a lower value can be offered to the consumer. “We received the kilo hook for 23 and 24 Bolivians and we are now going to talk with the associates. From Thursday we are going to hope that the price can be lowered automatically ”, he stressed.
Fernández said that at the meeting the producers indicated that the drought had an impact on operating costs and the purchase of supplies and food, and marketers explained their cost structure.
After the agreement, it was decided to form a permanent control and monitoring commission from the moment the cattle reach the auction point, to the slaughterhouses and to the point of sale. “Production costs affect ranchers, they are very tight in their structure, but we have asked that they help citizens in this stage of crisis, we are with a pandemic, unemployment and that affects,” he said.
According to Fernández, the commitment is that from Thursday the supply will be normalized with a greater supply of meat and in this way that the price begins to decrease.
He added that as a municipal government it will help so that producers and marketers can have access to technical support and operating capital. “The municipal slaughterhouse will play a regulatory role for slaughter and that the price per kilo hook does not rise and that when the cattle arrive and leave there is no intermediation that raises the price, we will control,” he said.
The executive secretary of the National Confederation of Bolivian Meat Workers (Contracabol), Jesús Uchani, expects that the price of 20 bolivianos per kilo hook, to which Fegasacruz promised with the marketers in Santa Cruz, will be extended to the rest of the departments . “We as retail meat workers will lower the price if we receive a lower price. The ranchers have committed to reduce from 25 and 24 bolivianos to 20 bolivianos, that will have repercussions throughout the country. As Contracabol we have requested a meeting with the ranchers and the Government ”, he pointed out.
Photo: APG
The meat traders mobilized in Cochabamba, Oruro, Tarija and other regions, except in Trinidad and Santa Cruz where their leaders insisted that the rise in the price of meat has to do with the export and smuggling of cattle to neighboring countries.
Uchani said that they should proceed with the closure of the auction centers that are the origin of speculation with the price of meat.
