BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — At 6 a.m., within the Mataderos neighborhood of Buenos Aires, workers promote off sides of pork from a truck outside a butcher shop as customers line up for wholesale purchases. Inner, 73-one year-historical owner Jorge García and his crew prepare meat orders sooner than daybreak.
Among the stacks of pork containers and pork cuts putting from steel hooks, hen and pork are more and more more current.
Crimson meat consumption in Argentina — historically one in all the sphere’s ideal patrons of pork — has fallen to its lowest stage in two a long time amid economic austerity measures imposed by libertarian President Javier Milei.
As of April 2026, annual per capita pork consumption fell to 44.5 kilograms (98 kilos), down from 49.5 kilograms (109 kilos) for the length of the an identical month a one year earlier, in step with the Agricultural Foundation for Argentina’s Construction. In 2006, it became 63.4 kilos (139 kilos) per particular person.
“Folks are switching to more cost effective proteins. They’re eating pork, they’re eating hen,” acknowledged García.
Analysts attribute the decline to hovering pork prices, lower cattle supply and weakened household procuring vitality. The hole of Argentina’s pork market to international alternate has also pushed domestic prices closer to global ranges.
“Crimson meat moved right into a in point of fact diversified procuring-vitality category. Staff’ wages fell a ways at the inspire of,” acknowledged Juampi Quintero, 25, a meat distributor who estimated consumption amongst his purchasers has fallen by bigger than half of.
Less cash for pork
Since coming into place of work in December 2023 with an annual inflation at 211%, Milei promised to do away with what he called “the cancer of inflation” by an adjustment plot that incorporated cuts comparable to nearly one-third of public spending, symbolized by the characterize of a chain saw.
The government succeeded in reversing the fiscal deficit and achieving a finances surplus — a uncommon end result in Argentina’s current historical previous — nevertheless the social price of the austerity measures has drawn criticism.
Within months, Milei’s administration eliminated 13 ministries, laid off about 30,000 public workers, halted public works tasks and lowered funding for key areas equivalent to education, healthcare and science, whereas also cutting again subsidies for neatly-liked companies equivalent to electrical energy, gasoline, water and transportation.
“That has effects on household income because households now must always pay more for companies that had been beforehand backed by the verbalize,” acknowledged economist Camilo Tiscornia. “This capability that, they luxuriate in less disposable income and must always quit obvious dearer items, equivalent to pork.”
At the an identical time, household incomes did no longer upward thrust at the an identical trail as pork prices, serving to drive down consumption.
Wages for registered workers elevated an moderate of 1.8% in February, the most fresh readily available data, when put next with monthly inflation of two.9%.
“Before, I had the freedom to aquire what I needed,” acknowledged Alberto Brajin, a 61-one year-historical retiree who runs a streetside barbecue stall in Buenos Aires.
Brajin acknowledged he now has to “alternate down” to more cost effective proteins equivalent to hen.
Incomes tumble, pork prices surge
Crimson meat prices rose bigger than 60% all the plot by the last one year, reaching an moderate of 18,500 pesos ($13) per kilogram in Buenos Aires in Also can, in step with the Argentine Crimson meat Promotion Institute.
In July 2025, Milei’s government lowered export taxes on pork and poultry and removed manufacturing quotas to again in a foreign country gross sales, reversing phase of the constraints imposed below ragged President Alberto Fernández to curb rising domestic prices. The easing of export rules came right as Argentina’s pork manufacturing dropped by bigger than 10 percent due to the floods and droughts, in step with CICCRA, the nonprofit group that represents Argentina’s pork producers.
Argentina’s government acknowledged this week that pork exports rose 54% within the first quarter when put next with a one year earlier, totaling nearly 200,000 loads value bigger than $1 billion. The lengthen followed a U.S. option earlier this one year to expand Argentina’s tariff-free pork quota amid American cattle shortages.
With the market opening up, producers began promoting pork — as soon as cheap at some stage in great of Argentina’s social spectrum — at prices closer to international ranges.
“Previously, all meats had an identical prices, which galvanized excessive pork consumption that did no longer replicate its genuine manufacturing charges,” agricultural consultant Iván Ordóñez explained.
Store owners study to adapt
As pork turns into more and dearer for many Argentine households, hen and pork are gaining ground as more cost effective choices.
“We’ve chosen to aquire pork and hen because pork is too expensive,” acknowledged shop owner Ruth Simon.
Chicken charges an moderate of 4,900 pesos ($3.50) per kilogram, whereas pork ribs price round 8,900 pesos ($6.30).
García, the butcher shop owner, acknowledged he began promoting hen and pork lower than a one year ago after noticing changes in customers’ eating habits.
“You can perchance perchance fair must always adapt,” he acknowledged. “We can’t right sit round crying. No crying. Now we must always always work. Now we must always always retain our dignity. Now we must always always strive against.”
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