The purchase of three of the four refrigerators of Marfrig by Minerva raised the alarm of almost the entire agricultural sector and also reached the political arc, being the former president of the Republic, Jose Mujicawho warned about the danger it represents for the Uruguayan industry.
This week the brazilian company Minerva bought three of the four plants that its competitor Marfrig, also native of Brazil, in a business of 1,540 million dollars. This includes the acquisition of another 13 refrigerators from the company, which makes Minerva in the company with the greatest slaughter capacity in the Uruguay, approaching 45%.
Faced with this, the former president mujica He presented his concern at a press conference and assured that “it is a danger” and that he is “concerned” by the fact that the company with higher working capacityto belong to foreign companies. “This depends on the states putting a brake on it,” said the former president, who criticized the idea that the current government has that “the market fixes everything.”
According to the former president, it is necessary that, at least, between 30 and 35% of the refrigeration industry Must be from national interests. In this sense, he assured that there are the possibilities of taking various measures for this to happen, although he did not give details. “I think that something can be done. In Europe I have seen it done,” she stated.
The concern of the entire political arc
Politicians, including within the ruling coalition, expressed concern about the influence of the price managementas well as the internal market and a significant percentage of workers.
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
