The Latin American Report # 598

This EFE report covers new and positive projections about meat production in Brazil released by the Lula da Silva government. If everything develops according to forecasts, the South American giant would produce again more than 32 million tons of chicken, beef, and pork meat in 2026, confirming its critical role in the global meat supply chain—it would be a record on top of the estimated record for the current year. Brazil is the top exporter of chicken and beef, and the fourth of pork.
In this sense, find very interesting that well over half of all production would remain in the domestic market, because of the 26 million tons projected, only 34% would leave Brazilian borders, although even that potential export volume would also set a new record.

This would be possible overcoming the impact of tariffs introduced by the Trump administration, as an official pointed out that all major Brazilian meatpackers have infrastructure installed in the United States, and also because the highly demanding Chinese market is ready to absorb any supply that might be left hanging. When I address this topic, I always introduce the point of how incongruous I find the "organization" of intraregional and national trade, although the analytical logic I barely describe next is only comprehensible from a critical perspective of the capitalist mode of production.

And it's that, with so much hunger gnawing at stomachs in Latin America, the supply of Brazilian meat to our countries is extremely limited—except for Chile and Mexico, which are not the neediest—, and I understand that the voracity of the Chinese and US markets, and potentially the European one after the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, will continue to push prices up for local markets. How do you all see this issue? Should there be regional alliances contributing to a "fair" distribution here of the meat produced in countries like Brazil or Paraguay?

_{From this Reuters's wire via X.}

Ecuador

The head of the Carondelet Palace has expanded to eight provinces a state of exception decreed in response to the call for protests over the elimination of the diesel purchase subsidy, and has also imposed a nighttime curfew in five of them. The controversial economic decision by President Daniel Noboa—announced last Friday—caused the price of a gallon (3.78 liters) of diesel to immediately rise by 55%, prompting an also immediate response from multiple sectors, particularly the key and representative indigenous movement.

Executive Decree 146, issued in the last hours, justifies the security measures by stating that the protests, including roadblocks, are "preventing the free movement of people and vehicles, affecting the guarantees, freedoms, and rights of citizens, as well as the normal development of their personal, economic, commercial, and labor activities." The last two attempts by the executive power in 2019 and 2022 to eliminate the sensitive diesel subsidy did not survive the subsequent protests.

The organization Movimiento Indígena y Campesino in Cotopaxi province has called for taking the city of Latacunga, its capital, where Noboa has temporarily installed the central seat of his government. "We most humbly request the Ecuadorian people that, in the course of the following days until Sunday, September 21st, they can stock up on basic necessities and other items needed for their households, so that there are no supply problems during the upcoming day[s] of resistance," said the aforementioned organization. Quito has implemented sharp cuts in recent weeks in a classic representation of what happens in those agreements with the global lender.

_Source

This is all for today’s report.