Argentine/Uruguay beef range strikes a chord in China

Marketing itself as a "health food"​ option, and emblazoned with imagery of the Pampas grasslands and ‘gaucho’ cowboys, the Chinese-owned ‘La Pampa’ brand is being rolled out this spring in the refrigerated aisles at major supermarket chains, including Walmart, Jusco, Vanguard and Lotus, as well as the upmarket BHG supermarket chain, run by the state-owned Hualian Group.

With a bull’s head for its logo, La Pampa is a brand launched by a Chinese trading firm based in the country’s south. Contacted for this article, a spokesperson for the firm said the company has pastures and slaughtering facilities in Argentina. "We are looking to expand our distribution to more cities and supermarket chains in China,"​ he said, but declined to detail how many cattle the firm is slaughtering or processing each year.

Headquartered in the Futian Free Trade Zone in Shenzhen, an industrial Chinese city bordering Hong Kong, the Pampas Agricultural Shenzhen (Group) Co is a subsidiary of Shenzhen Pampas Trading Company. On its website the firm promotes itself as a proponent of "ecological agriculture research, agricultural production, processing and trade".​ The firm claims offices in Argentina, Australia and Uruguay as well as a sub-office in Beijing.

The La Pampa offering appears to be striking a chord with high-income shoppers. Putting the RMB316/kg Pampas steaks in her trolley at a downtown outlet of Chinese retailer Vanguard, office manager Hong Li Mei passed over local meat options, ranging from chicken drumsticks (RMB7.58/500g) or streaky bacon (RMB10.80/500g) and higher-end options such as raw shrimp (RMB38.80/500g) and cooked duck (RMB16.90/500g) for a show-off treat of Latin American beef. "It’s something different, it’s high-quality, it’s imported and I do it for my kid every week for the extra protein,"​ she said.

The retail price of the Pampas brand compares favourably with prices charged in Beijing outlets of retailer Ito Yokado for Australian beef – RMB360/kg for most cuts and sold with the label "Australia beef natural and safe"​ as part of a city-wide promotion part-financed by the Australian state. Incidentally both the Argentine and Australian beef cuts are sold raw, but dressed with black pepper sauce, which is popular in Chinese cooking.

The La Pampa labelling claims the firm covers "the whole beef value chain"​ and claims investments in Argentina, Uruguay and Australia. Aside from importing and distributing beef in China, La Pampa says its activities extend to "pasture management and beef slaughter surveillance",​ as well as further processing of beef. However the firm’s spokesman explained the company operated through "co-operation" rather than ownership of land or plants in Argentina.

Uniquely, the Shenzhen-based firm promises to offer wholesale and restaurant customers two "intestinal"​ specialities, including a "Pampas-intestinal-style barbecue".​

An image of Pampas grass-fed beef as more healthy has also been promoted by the Argentine trade body Instituto de Promocion de la Carne Vacuna Argentina (IPCVA), which has been using menu promotions at high-end restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai to boost the nation’s beef in China.

With 13 million cattle slaughtered each year, Argentina accounts for 7.4% of the global beef export trade. Exports have been limited at times, however, as the nation seeks to tame inflation by increasing local supply.

While China ultimately produces more beef than Argentina it is clear that local per capita consumption has some way to go to match that of Argentina, where average per capita consumption stands at 40kg (retail weight) per year, according to data published by the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN. China’s per capita consumption stands at just 3.4kg.

After being blocked from China on sanitary grounds until 2012, Argentina sees a "great deal of interest"​ in its beef products in China, according to Gonzalo Álvarez, president of IPCVA, in a recent statement to the press in Buenos Aires.

Latin America’s three big producers – Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina – were also out in force at SIAL 2013, a key food promotion expo, in Shanghai. China imports approximately 5% of Uruguayan beef output, or 400,000 tonnes, but is expected to account for 20% of Uruguayan shipments in 2014, according to the president of the country’s Instituto Nacional de Carnes (INAC), Luis Alfredo Fratti.

He expects China to remain Uruguay’s number one export destination in volume terms and says the country’s image as a grass-fed producer and its record for traceability allows it to capture the higher end of the market.