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Uruguay buffet bonanza


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Uruguay buffet bonanza
By Ye Jun (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-21 08:08

Despite being geographically small, Uruguay today is making a big
impression on the Chinese palate with its meat and wine.

In Beijing, restaurants such as OBELISCO in Beijing proffer plenty of
Uruguayan wines, delicious asado and Uruguayan barbeque.

Uruguay is famed for its Tannat grape varieties, which produce
deep-colored wines with powerful aromas. In recent years, the South
American country has won an increasing number of international prizes for
producing the best wines in the world.

And an increasing amount of Uruguayan meat is being sent to big hotels as
its reputation for high quality grows. Uruguayan meat is generally
cheaper than Australian meat, partly because of the relatively lower
degree of market recognition. People can easily find it in major
wholesale markets and refrigeratories in Beijing, according to Zhang
Yuehui, marketing manager at Sunway, a major Uruguayan meat wholesaler in
Beijing.

According to the World Trade Atlas, Uruguay has become China's second
biggest exporter of both fresh and frozen beef after Australia. In 2006,
China imported 13,266 kilograms of fresh or chilled bovine animal meat, a
20.14 percent increase over the previous year. Uruguay also ranks second
in terms of frozen bovine meat exported to China, although Australia
exports more to the mainland by a large margin.

Uruguay is the third largest exporter of sheep and goat meat to China and
ranks seventh in its export of bovine, swine, sheep, goat and horse offal.

That is good news for the Chinese market, according to Conrado Beckerman,
CEO at Safe Foods, a Uruguayan meat importer and distributor based in
Shanghai.

"Uruguayan meat contains no chemicals and has a very low level of
cholesterol," he said. "Uruguay beef is 92 percent lean. It is used a lot
in the European Union and the United States."

Zhang agrees that its quality raises its market prospects.

"While many tenderloins available on the market will usually get into the
diastema (spaces between teeth), you can easily chew a piece of Uruguayan
beef," Zhang said.

There are more than 10 Chinese companies selling Uruguayan meat in
Beijing. Many import and process the meat by themselves in order to add
value.

But the competition ensures it's a tough market. And Shanghai is home to
more consumers of Uruguayan meat than is Beijing.

"We export at a higher price but sell at a lower price because of low
market awareness," said Beckerman. "We are educating the market about the
benefits of natural beef. There are still a lot of marketing efforts to
make."

Beckerman says he was very pleased to see the Chinese government making
efforts to regulate the food industry, because he believed it would help
the company promote its high-quality meat.

And Zhang Yuehui is confident that his company can open up the market
with Uruguayan meat. "Sales are rising steadily," he said. "I'm sure the
market needs Uruguayan meat to balance and stimulate sales."

(China Daily 09/19/2007 page8)

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