Queretaro ranchers will fight for production center

Queretaro, Qro. Livestock producers will propose to the state government to build a production center that functions as a metropolitan slaughterhouse, but that also includes areas to section cattle and provide added value.

In a first stage, it will require an investment of 250 million pesos, announced the president of the Querétaro Regional Livestock Union (UGRQ), Alejandro Ugalde Tinoco.

The initiative will be proposed this 2023 to the governor, Mauricio Kuri González, to propose it as one of the priority projects of the six-year term (2021-2027).

For this new year, the livestock sector, he said, will work on the axes of infrastructure and equipment development, therefore, the construction of a regional slaughterhouse will be one of the main points. Supporting producers with equipment, he added, will allow them to increase their production capacities.

More than building a slaughterhouse, he clarified that the objective is to generate a new business model that not only focuses on reaching the phase of having the meat in carcass, but also gives added value that allows the product to go directly to the process. marketing.

“That is what we want to promote, infrastructure and equipment, we have a lot in mind that a new metropolitan slaughterhouse be built, but not so much as a slaughterhouse but as a business model so that the animal can be killed, but also that it can be cut up. and to be able to send that product directly to Mexico City”, he proposed.

higher profits

This initiative seeks to increase the profits of producers, to avoid that the added value is given by intermediaries and, then, the profits remain directly with the primary producer.

“And not that we send it (the product), they give it added value and we consume it, so it is a strategy, it is a business model, we are presenting it first to the Secretary of Agricultural Development (Rosendo Anaya) and then they We will present it to the governor so that he can have it as one of the main projects within his entire six-year term,” he said.

The president of the UGRQ noted that the sector is going through a difficult time, because in 2022 they accumulated an increase in production costs of almost 35% on average, without this increase being reflected in the income of producers.

Three years ago, a ton of oilseed, such as soybean paste, was purchased for 7,800 pesos, a price that is currently 53.8% higher, since the same product is sold for 12,000 pesos.

Our costs have really increased a lot, mainly with grains and this has been dragging down everything else, we use oilseeds such as soybean paste, which has also risen a lot,” he explained.

In the period January-November 2022, the production of carcass meat in the state was 401,220 tons, which implies an annual growth of only 1.5%, according to the Agri-Food and Fisheries Information System (SIAP).

Poultry meat contributed 85.2% of carcass meat production; beef contributed 8.3%, pork 6.2%, the rest is distributed among other types of meat, such as sheep, turkey and goat production.

estados@eleconomista.mx