The national director of Agrifood Safety and Quality of the National Service of Agrifood Health and Quality (Senasa), Alejandro Fernández, explained that the new chopping system for the retail marketing of meat vaccine will start next Tuesday, November 1st.
The official considered that the refrigerators of meat they had “enough time to adapt” their way of operating with respect to the chopping of the product for your transportation. “There is no turning back, the measure begins on November 1. It is a decision made and we understand that there was enough time to make the adaptation”, said Fernández.
The official clarified that the objective of the implementation of the chopping is, in the first instance, prevent workers from continuing to unload the meat to the butchers in the form of half beef on the shouldertaking into account that it can weigh 120 kilograms each.
The second intention is that the type of transport changes because “there are impacts on the hygiene and quality of the product, because the way they are transferred or delivered in this way causes the res measure to fall or drag and come into contact with elements that contaminate the product”.
The new marketing scheme was announced in April 2021 through a joint resolution of the then Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries; Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Productive Development.
The official remarked that “this is an issue that does not come from two years ago, but has been discussed for 20 or more. The noise today arises from the intervention of state organizations.” In addition, he argued that these measures can generate rejection in the first instance, but “finally the chain is going to adapt”.
Currently, more than 80% of refrigerators are in a position to implement the measure. The remaining 20% have made progress in credits, procedures and in obtaining formal authorization to chop. “For those who are not in a position to do so, we have informed them that they will be able to move half-carcasses to slaughterhouses or slaughterhouses to cut them up, as long as they are not retailers.”
support and rejection
The exporters, grouped in the Consortium of Meat Exporters, together with the Government promote the measure. On the contrary, the industry dedicated mainly to the domestic market, led by the Argentine Chamber of Slaughterers and Suppliers (Camya) considers the transport initiative of the product non-viable.
In the same sense, the chambers associated with the Federation of Regional Meat Processing Industries (Fifra) announced that tomorrow they will not receive finances and that “there will be no slaughter activity or distribution of meat from Tuesday due to the validity of the regulations regarding the chopping and the lack of authorization to use mechanical means for unloading”.
