Economics
Argentina’s Crisis Is Great for Steak But Bad for Ranchers
Cattlemen lose, exporters win as herds are sold off cheaply.
Cow carcasses at a slaughterhouse in San Fernando, Argentina.
Photographer: Marcos Brindicci/ReutersThis article is for subscribers only.
Juan Eiras was born into a family of ranchers. If not for that, he says, the 55-year-old would have quit the business in 2018, the worst year for raising cattle on Argentina’s famed Pampas plains in almost a decade. Now he’s worried about how he’s going to make it through 2019.
For many of Argentina’s cattlemen, the pain of last year’s currency crisis endures. With the benchmark interest rate sitting at 56 percent—the world’s highest—Eiras and others are pretty much cut off from credit. At the same time, feed costs have soared, pushed up by inflation that’s running at 48 percent.