Debate on beef production debuts at Expodireto
The challenges of adding value to protein production and consolidating meat exports, with sustainability, as a relevant product in the Rio Grande do Sul trade balance, will be at the center of discussions at the 1st Beef Forum, which is scheduled for the second day of Expodireto, on Tuesday, at the Production Auditorium.
“Today, cattle ranchers have the blemish of not being sustainable, and we have been working hard to increasingly increase this producer’s commitment. The problem is that the slaughterhouse does not pay more or does not differentiate this sustainable producer. As a result, the consumer still doesn’t look for ‘green meat'”, explains the president of the Instituto Desenvolvimento Pecuária (IDP), Luiz Felipe Barros.
It is not by chance that the forum will bring the carbon market to its agenda as a way of attracting not only the attention of producers, but also of public authorities on the opportunity that livestock production can generate for the country.
“In the Pampa biome, especially, we have the right environment to be sustainable and still generate income for the producer. We are talking about a production without deforestation, which preserves springs, has the capacity to maintain native fields and today does not receive an extra real for it. Today, for example, there is no possibility of certifying our meat with the traceability of a preserved biome, as happens in the North, for example, and is so valued by the European market”, he says.
Today, Rio Grande do Sul has only the ninth herd in the country, and is the sixth state in terms of slaughter. The producer price, according to Barros, fell by 17% last year. Something that is not reflected, for example, on the shelves. “The problem lies in structuring the production chain, and this is what we want to bring to the debate in an environment as important as Expodireto. With the confinement of cattle in other states, something that in Rio Grande do Sul would be very expensive, slaughterhouses have their stocks full, and they determine the price to the consumer”, defines Barros.
According to him, the drought had an even greater impact on producer prices. With insecurity to keep the cattle in the field, those that were already fat were all sold, with great supply, to slaughterhouses.
