Argentina reopens 32 meat processing plants

Argentina has reopened 32 meat processing plants in the past four months thanks to a recovery in beef sales to the European Union (EU) and devaluation of its currency, Cabinet chief Alfredo Atanasof said on Monday.

The plants resumed operations in January, ten months after the EU suspended Argentine beef imports due to isolated outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Argentina.

Some 5,000 people have regained their jobs and another 3,000 jobs will be created over the next few months, Atanasof told a press conference.

During the first quarter of this year, the EU imported some 10,000 tons of Argentine beef under its "Hilton quota," a low-import tariff category for the finest cuts of Argentine beef.

In the next few months, another 28,000 tons of beef are to be exported to the EU under the system. That includes 10,000 tons not exported last year due to the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Atanasof said another 10,000 tons of Argentine beef would likely be exported to other markets.

Argentina, which has some 50 million head of cattle, lost about $400 million (€437m) last year due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Argentina's currency has lost two-thirds of its value relative to the US dollar since January, when the government ended the decade-old currency regime that pegged the peso at parity with the dollar.

The weaker peso has made Argentine exports more competitive in international markets.

International health organizations, meanwhile, are not expected to declare Argentina free of foot-and-mouth disease for at least four years.