Uruguay beef exports via Brazil’s port of Rio Grande increase ten-fold

Exporting agricultural cargo from Uruguay through the Brazilian Port of Rio Grande (RS) has been a strategy increasingly used by producers in the neighboring country who seek to diversify paths for their harvests and animal products.

In the first quarter of 2021, Wilson Sons, which operates a container terminal at the port, recorded a ten-fold increase over 2020 in handling animal protein from Uruguayan meatpackers.

In March, Tecon Rio Grande recorded a 500% increase over the same month in 2020 for meat loads from Uruguay.

Between January and March this year, the Gaucho terminal handled 828 TEU (unit equivalent to a 20-foot container) of cargo, or 10,803 tons, compared to the 102 TEU (1,085 tons) during the first three months of 2020.

In March alone, Tecon Rio Grande received 284 TEU (3,693 tons) of meat from Uruguay, more than 500% more than the same month in 2020, when it received 56 TEU (574 tons).

The cargo comes mainly by road from the city of Melo, 280 km from the Port of Rio Grande. The route is beneficial to the producer for various reasons, including proximity – the Port of Montevideo is almost 400 km from the producing region – and a more attractive cost.

The first shipments of animal protein from Uruguay arrived at Tecon Rio Grande in January 2020.

“In operation for more than 15 consecutive months, we are providing an important logistical corridor for Uruguayan exporters”, highlights Paulo Bertinetti, the terminal’s CEO.

Beef and sheep are among Uruguay’s main export products. Recently, the Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, opened the possibility of also exporting rice through Brazil when he participated in the inauguration of the rice harvest.

Source: Globo Rural

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