The model meat exporter - Significance of the Uruguayan production of lamb and beef

Uruguay is ideally suited as an indicator of the globalised meat markets. The main reasons are that a high proportion of the national territory is used for agricultural purposes, there is extreme specialization on pasture economy with beef and sheep due to the climatic conditions, and the fact that the inland market is small, resulting in complete dependency of the economy on exports. The collapse of the international wool market was the key experience for Uruguayan animal production in the last decades of the 20(th) century. The producers reacted to this with a vast transformation of the production systems, mostly by changing the animal stock. The traditional ratio of sheep to cattle of 3:1, which had until then been expedient in terms of the grazing system dropped to its current level of less than 1:1. Despite the reduced sheep stock, the quantity of profitable lamb meat production and exports did not drop because age and weight at slaughter increased considerably. Additionally, a similar increase in the age of steers guaranteed the full exploitation of the available pasture area. These measures did not compromise the quality level of the final products. In both types of meat, the transformation forced by the world market contributed to a better adaptation of the Uruguayan meat industry to international competition. This led to ongoing diversification of meat cuts, and to an increase in both the degree of processing and added value of the products.