The president will meet from 4:00 p.m. with authorities from the MEF and MGAP, and with the president of INAC, Conrado Ferber, to analyze the situation.
President Luis Lacalle Pou called a meeting in executive tower for today at 4:00 p.m., with the aim of addressing the issue of the concentration of the refrigeration industry that would take place in Uruguay before the purchase of three of the four plants of Marfrig by Minerva. Authorities from the ministries of Economy and Finance (MEF) and of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP)as well as the National Meat Institute (INAC).
Minerva’s announcement regarding the important operation in the Uruguayan market —in particular, within a regional strategy— that will imply its possession of almost 45% of the local work it set off the alarm among the producing sectors, but also among politicians.
Given the multiple requests and, even, an audience with the Rural Association of Uruguay (ARU) —from which they presented a technical report with the situation of the slaughter market from the new acquisition of Minerva, after the approved purchase of the slaughterhouse Breeders and Packers Uruguay (BPU)—, President Lacalle Pou summoned authorities from the competent ministries and agencies to analyze the situation, according to Telemundo.
The meeting will be attended by the undersecretary of MGAP, Ignacio Buffa —while the holder of the portfolio, Fernando Mattos, is not in the country—; MEF hierarchs; and the president of INAC, Conrad Ferber, who in the last hours asked that the case be dealt with by the Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Competition.
What does the ARU technical report say?
The Rural Association of Uruguay (ARU) carried out a technical study of the state of the refrigeration industry from the purchase of the three refrigerators of Marfrig by Minerva, and presented it to the government as a result of what they understand as a worrying situation of concentration of the slaughter market Uruguayan.
The reason is that, with the new incorporation of plants, Minerva will come to mean more than 44% of the total participation of the national refrigeration market, according to the report released by the Directorate of Agroeconomic Studies of the ARU. Likewise, if the valuation of the market share of the four main firms is taken —Minerva, Marfrig, The Stones and Pando— in the last moving year, between them they represent 69% of the industry —of which the new owner of the BPU would mean, by itself, 42.6%.
The technical work of the agrarian union mentions, in turn, that the US Federal Trade Commission establishes thresholds for market concentration: according to this indicator, when the portion is less than 33%, the market is considered to be less concentrated; when it is between 33% and 67% it is a moderately concentrated market; while si exceeds 67%, there are high levels of concentration. This last case would be that of the Uruguayan refrigeration industry.
Source: Ambito
