The plant will be reactivated, despite the authorization problem with China, which makes shipments to the main market difficult.
He Florida Refrigerator will resume activity in a reduced way next week, within the framework of a reopening that was truncated days ago due to an authorization problem in China, that from the Lequio Group, in charge of the firm, attributed to the previous management.
Although the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP) promised to take steps to unblock the conflict as soon as possible, the owner of the plant, Leonardo Lequío, He announced that, pending the reactivation of the Asian market, next week it will operate to other destinations.
“We are going to start operations next week at a reduced level,” he said. lequio in dialogue with Tiempo de cambio, which is broadcast on Radio Rural. And he clarified that the business group he commands preferred to reopen while waiting for “this inconvenience to be resolved,” on which he expressed “the expectation that it will have a favorable resolution.”
On the situation that delayed the full reopening, lequio indicated that “before a complaint or something similar in the Ministry of Commerce, China asked the Ministry of Livestock lift the current approval until the situation is clarified” and, regarding the merits of the matter, he specified: “There was a debt from a previous management that has nothing to do with it and that a judicial process took place in the middle.”
However, now the Chinese authorities plan to carry out a virtual inspection of the plant, the date of which is not defined. “We hope it will be as soon as possible,” the Argentine businessman was honest.
It is worth noting that the Florida Refrigerator It has installed capacity for about 1,600 cattle per week. In fact, lequio admitted that it could be increased, although “to get to that it is necessary first to overcome this situation that arose with the approval for China”.
What is the obstacle that made it difficult to reopen?
When the complication became known, the MGAP recalled in a statement that the sale of the establishment included the ratings for the internal and external market, contemplating the export to China, the European Union, the United States, Russia and Brazil, among others. However, he clarified that the Chinese health authorities (GACC) they requested a audit virtual to continue with the enablement.
The suspicion of the Asian country is due to the fact that the previous owner company —Clademar, of the Zambrano Venezuelan Group— had repeated non-compliances and kept the plant paralyzed since mid-2019. Since China ensure that the audit cannot be carried out in the establishment while it is inactive, they warned from the MGAP, so the reopening could be an advance in the negotiations.
Source: Ambito
