Senator Sebastián Da Silva warned that, after acquiring 3 Marfrig plants, the Brazilian company could end up having a monopoly.
The senator sebastian da silva warned that “one in two steers or fat cows in Uruguay is going to be bought and slaughtered by a single company”, echoing the acquisition of Minerva of three floors of its competitor Marfrig.
da silva assured Radio Rural that “there is a before and after in the meat chain of Uruguay from this news”, in reference to the acquisition of the company of Brazil, which will thus have 7 of the main slaughter plants in the country. It is worth reviewing that Minerva has plants Pul, Carrasco and Cannelloni, to which is added the recent incorporation of the BPU, after a long process, also questioned from some sectors.
“In this case it is obvious that there is a concentrated market,” questioned the senator from National Party and pointed out that when buying half of the cows, “instead of putting the international price of the meat, he can put the price he wants”, affecting the interests of the livestock producer.
They are looking for a legal mechanism to avoid a monopoly
da silva He joined the criticism from various sectors and admitted that the government cannot interrupt the merger, but asked “to review the Law for the Defense of Competition.” In this context, he specified: “We are seeing with our advisors how this can be transferred to a standard 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.
It is that, adding the plant of BPU and the three of Marfrig, recently acquired for 1,540 million dollars and involving the absorption of 16 refrigerators, Minerva would remain in control of about 45% of the Uruguayan work, as reported by Blasina and Associates. “The country with the largest livestock in the world needs guarantees not monopolies”, topped off da silva on the situation, which puts competition in a key sector for the economy at risk.
Source: Ambito
