The commissioning of the plant belonging to the Mexican SuKarne has once again brought to the fore the problem of smuggling of live cattle both to Costa Rica and to Honduras.
An article in Elnuevodiario.com.ni reports that "... Canicarne's executive director, Onel Perez, insisted that the problem of livestock [smuggling] not only affects meat processing plants, but will also have effects on employment in newly set up processing plants, the price of meat for consumers, and livestock taken as a whole. "
The main factors are a herd of 5.8 million head of cattle, programs which give impetus to the activity, and the opportunities provided by the AA with the EU.
According to breeders and industry to date number of cattle could be higher than that amount recorded in the IV National Agricultural Census (4.2 million head).
Canicarne is demanding the repeal of the decree which establishes a fixed price of $250 for cattle weighing between 250 and 350 kilos, which favors the export of live cattle.
According to the Nicaraguan Chamber of Beef Exports (Canicarne), slaughterhouses are working at half capacity and demanding the repeal of the interministerial Mific-Magfor Decree 027-2007, believing that it encourages tax evasion in live cattle exports.
Meat processing plants foresee slaughtering 250,000 more cattle by 2014, a 38% increase.
Onel Pérez, president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Beef Exporters (Canicarne), noted that they expect to slaughter 650,000 animals in 2010, out of a maximum capacity of 1.1 million in the country's 4 processing plants.
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