Driven by the quota window, slaughter returned to the 50,000-head mark

As anticipated in the previous edition of WBR, cattle slaughter jumped last week, driven by the opening of the production window for the European 481 grainfed quota. INAC reported that 50,931 head of cattle were processed during the week ending July 26, up 10,880 from the previous and nearly 8,400 more than the same week last year.

All categories showed increases week-on-week, but the most significant were among heifers (+51% to 7,607) and steers (+31% to 24,974), compared to cows (+15% to 17,537). The first two categories are those used for the 481 quota.

The most active plants during the week were Las Piedras (5,826), Marfrig-Tacuarembó (5,132), and San Jacinto (4,701). Marfrig resumed operations at all four of its plants, where it processed 14,834 head, the highest volume since the first week of June. Minerva, also operating four plants (though slaughter at Canelones was minimal with just 749 head), processed 10,433 animals. The Urgal family, with its two plants, slaughtered 9,328 cattle.

At Marfrig, the Colonia plant remained active through Tuesday, after which it closed for staff leave. On Tuesday, the second shift at the Tacuarembó plant began operating. Meanwhile, Minerva’s Canelones plant is temporarily inactive.

With four working days remaining in July, a total of 168,194 cattle have been slaughtered so far, showing a year-on-year increase of 18.3%. Expectations are that the month will close with around 208,000 cattle processed, marking an annual increase of over 37,000 head.