Political leaders and workers of the refrigeration industry in Uruguay expressed their concern about the recent announcement of the Brazilian company Minerva, which acquired three of the four plants from its competitor —also from Brazil—Marfrig, and will have control over 45% of the Uruguayan work.
The business concentration in the refrigeration industry is once again a matter of concern at the local level after the Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Competition of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) closed the matter in relation to the purchase of the refrigerator Breeders and Packers Uruguay (BPU) by Minerva Foods —which put 51% of the national slaughter market in Brazilian hands.
The controversy arose again around Minerva, after it announced, a few days after the confirmation of the purchase of the BPU, the acquisition of 16 refrigerators in the region of its competitor and compatriot Marfrig, which implies that it will have control of three of the four plants that the latter currently owns in the country: the refrigerator Cologne, the fridge La Caballada (Jump) and the fridge Inaler (San Jose). Between the three, they slaughter approximately 18% of all cattle in the country, so the impact on Minerva’s operations after the operation —which must be approved by the corresponding regulatory bodies— will reach 45% of the slaughter market. after adding 26.6% in recent days thanks to the Breeders and Packers.
Opportunity and uncertainty among workers
The workers of the refrigeration industry, grouped in the Workers’ Federation of the Meat and Related Industry (Foica) They were among the first to speak out about it. “Minerva Foods acquires seven refrigerators in Uruguay. They did a nice circus with the ‘Law in Defense of Competition’ with the sale of BPU. Bla , Bla , Bla.”, they expressed from the union through Twitter.
In this regard, the president of Foica, Martin Cardozo, who pointed out two sensations around the announcement of the purchase of Marfrig: opportunity and uncertainty. Regarding the first, he considered that it is a good sign to form a bloc and negotiate better working conditions, while the 95% of union members they work in the seven refrigerators that Minerva now has, Cardozo said.
On the other hand, uncertainty remains as to how the multinational manages the production distribution among your plants. “If I go to the salaries I have to be honest: we have salaries from the average to above and the conditions we work in are consistent. But Minerva has a very tough negotiation modality, sometimes intransigent, but hey, everything is up for discussion,” he said .
Monopolies and prices in very few hands
The influence of price managementas well as the internal market and a significant percentage of workers, is another matter of concern.
In this sense, the former Minister of Atmosphere and current senator of Colorado Party, Adrian Peña, He pointed out on his Twitter account that “concentration is never good… and much less so.”
Also the white senator sebastian da silva —who is also a livestock producer— took a position on the issue, and pointed out that “it is a complicated fact for the countryman” and that “million-dollar mergers impact María Albina.”
He also stressed that one in two steers or fat cows will be bought by a single companyand that the buyer, “instead of putting the international price of meat, can put the price you want”, so the livestock producer will be directly affected.
Da Silva clarified that the government cannot stop the merger, but that it must “review the Law for the Defense of Competition” to “see what mechanism exists to generate a transparent market framework.” “We are not against the merger, we are very alarmed with the consequences of this merger, which could be a monopoly in the refrigeration industry,” added the senator.
“The most cattle-raising country in the world needs non-monopoly guarantees“, he concluded.
Source: Ambito
