The announcement, made in early January, that one of the largest beef processing plants in Paraná would close, eliminating hundreds of jobs, led Sindicarnes-PR to demand “urgent” measures from the state government to support the sector.
In a statement on Tuesday (01/24/2023), the union, which represents beef and pork companies, said that the closure of a Big Boi factory is the latest blow to the sector, which they claim has been suffering for years.
According to Sindicarne-PR, the closure of the company “is a bitter reflection of the crisis that has taken hold in the beef industry in recent years, generated by the combination of an extensive list of negative factors: increased costs, flight of raw materials to other states, dehydration of domestic consumption, in addition to the bleak outlook of an increase in the tax burden,” the document points out.
According to the entity, “the market scenario for beef in Paraná was already adverse when the state of Paraná was recognized as a Foot-and-Mouth Disease-Free Area without Vaccination and the consequent imposition of restrictive health measures on the entry of animals from other states where vaccination continues to be adopted. This situation has severely affected the dynamics of the state’s beef cattle chain, generating increasing difficulties and losses for Paraná’s meatpacking plants”.
In Sindicarnes’ assessment, there is a prospect of an even greater burden on the sector with the start of the Funrep charge, starting in March 2023.
“If such a charge actually occurs, it could mean a fatal blow for many companies in the sector in Paraná. The numbers confirm the worsening of the situation. In 2020 alone, the year in which health restrictions began, the exodus of cattle to other states (mainly São Paulo) exceeded 150,000 head, making it impossible for slaughterhouses in Paraná to obtain the slaughter scales necessary to make their operations even minimally profitable. This level fell slightly in 2021, but rose again with even greater force in 2022”.
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In the sector, it is estimated that the discouragement resulting from the increase in production costs in the field, coupled with the lack of resources directed to the promotion of beef cattle farming, has caused a reduction in the Paraná beef cattle herd by up to 300,000 head since 2019.
Many properties focused on finishing and/or confinement existing in the state were deactivated or simply dismantled, the document informs. The situation has also harmed exporting companies, causing Paraná’s share of foreign exports of beef and by-products to fall from 1.8% in 2019 to 0.8% in 2022.
To ensure the formation of slaughter scales and fulfill their contractual commitments, Paraná slaughterhouses were forced to assume an exorbitant additional logistical burden in searching for animals for slaughter thousands of kilometers away, in the states of Rondônia and Acre, which have the same health status.
Even so, the volume of slaughters by Paraná slaughterhouses with SIF fell drastically, from 835 thousand head in 2019 to 795 thousand head in 2020 and 695 thousand head in 2021, a drop of 17% in just two years. It is worth mentioning that until five years ago, the slaughter of cattle with SIF in Paraná routinely exceeded one million head/year.
It is shameful and unacceptable for the centuries-old tradition of the beef industry in Paraná that Paraná continues to follow the path of becoming a mere supplier of cattle to other states.
Source: Canal Rural