Higher hide prices will pay for cattle traceability - leatherbiz: Lead Leatherbiz

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Higher hide prices will pay for cattle traceability

01/05/2018
Uruguay’s policy of insisting on traceability for every head of cattle that passes through the South American country’s farms, feedlots and abattoirs is a strategic advantage rather than an unwanted burden. This was the position presented at a recent conference in Montevideo by the chief executive of packer firm Frigorífico Las Piedras, Alberto González Buceta.

Mr González Buceta’s views have met with some criticism amongst other livestock farmers and packer companies in Uruguay, mostly over the perennial question of who should pay for installing and running cattle traceability systems. His response is that the improved quality and increased value of cattle hides that electronic traceability of cattle will generate will give farmers pay-back on their investment “many times over”.

In comments to local media after the conference, he said: “It’s the hide, not the meat, that will pay for this. A non-branded hide will command almost double the value of a branded one. Just by ceasing to brand cattle, something that the traceability system will allow farmers to do, they will start to earn twice the amount of money they do at the moment from cattle hides. This would bring in more than enough to pay for the system.”



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