In 20 years, Argentina has lost 60% of its steers: What is happening with the beef supply?

In the first vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease in 2004, 6.6 million steers were registered in the country. Since then, the stock of that category has fallen uninterruptedly for more than two decades, until stabilizing at 2.9 million animals in the period 2018-2023. According to provisional data, in the recently completed vaccination campaign, the first of 2024, the stock would have been reduced again to only 2.7 million steers, 4% less than last year and 59% less than 20 years ago, when Senasa began to publish the series. Regarding prices, most analysts agree that international beef prices could recover next year, after the sharp drop recorded from mid-2022 to date. Some of that may already be happening, with import prices on the rise in the United States, a moderate recovery in China, and prices that have generally stopped falling and are pointing to an incipient recovery. But any improvement could encounter two limits: the first is the fact that in all markets where the ...