Amid surge in exports to US, Argentina aims to reclaim the glory days of its beef

It was early in the morning at the Mercado Agro Ganadero, an enormous cattle market about an hour outside Buenos Aires, and the buyers were lining up.

“The bells start ringing at 7:30,” said head of institutional relations Valeria Tarello. “When buyers see that there are enough people, the bidding starts and they move from one auction to the next.”

Cowhands, known as gauchos, in distinctive neckerchiefs and beret-like hats, rode horses up and down the lanes, moving the animals from pen to pen in the marketplace. There were Angus cattle with beautiful black and red hides, largely bound for domestic markets, and an abundance of bony black-and-white cattle, mostly destined for China. And — though recent outrage among US agriculture groups and cattle ranchers would have seemed to indicate otherwise — only a small percentage of exports go to the United States. 

US President Donald Trump’s announcement late last year that he would boost imports of Argentine beef set off a firestorm of pushback from industry players in the United States. But a recent analysis shows the impact on the domestic market is likely to be minimal. More than anything, it appears to have been a gift to help Argentine President Javier Milei shore up support at home amid an economic crisis. 

A hundred years ago, Argentina was the world’s largest beef exporter, accounting for more than half of global exports. In recent decades, however, the industry has been hamstrung by tight export limits aimed at curbing inflation and prioritizing domestic supply. But that has changed under Milei, and the recent opening of the market could mean the beginning of a new era for Argentine steak on the world stage. 

“The White House has been trying to thread a needle,” said Vince Smith, professor of economics at Montana State University and director of the agricultural policy program at the American Enterprise Institute. “And the needle is that the president wanted to help the current administration in Argentina.

Critics also say that the Trump administration is playing double standards in Latin America — invading and threatening countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba, while pardoning Honduras’ president for drug trafficking and boosting Argentina’s Milei.

The increased imports from Argentina were announced in October, around the same time the White House authorized a $20 billion bailout to boost Argentina’s flailing economy — only days before the legislative election, where Milei’s party emerged with a decisive victory. 

“The fiscal bailout for Argentina of $20 billion is far more important in terms of its impact on Argentina than expanding the amount allowed to be shipped to the US in terms of beef,” Smith said. “But they’re linked.”

Americans have long had a romantic image of Argentine beef. In the land of asado, a slow-cooked beef barbecue, it’s hard to overstate its cultural importance. Except for maybe soccer, there’s no faster way to the hearts of people from Argentina than through access to affordable, high-quality steak. 

It’s not only at the global level where Argentina’s beef industry is seeing changes, but domestically, as well, where savvy young entrepreneurs are starting to branch out from tradition.

“Cattle farming in Argentina is very conservative,” said Juani Barcos. “Nobody believed that there was something different to that classic Angus Argentine beef.”

Barcos is a chef, restaurant owner and cattle farmer. In the 1990s, his father, a veterinarian, worked for the Argentine equivalent of the USDA and was sent on a trip to Japan, where he encountered wagyu for the first time — a term that refers to several Japanese breeds that produce highly marbled, very expensive cuts of beef. Not long after, he introduced wagyu genetics to Argentina.

“He was the first in Latin America to introduce that new breed,” Barcos said. “And then a few years ago, I started working with him on the project.”

At Madre Rojas, Barcos’s restaurant in the up-and-coming neighborhood of Villa Crespo, steaks hissed on an enormous parrilla, or grill. The menu lists the provenance of every cut of meat, something he sees as hugely important.

“It’s not just enough to say that we sell Argentine beef,” Barcos said. “The market is requesting more information, traceability and reliability. Nobody trusts that picture of Angus cattle eating grass on the Pampas anymore. This is not the way the majority of Argentine beef is produced.”

That is to say, contrary to the much-publicized image of happy cows in Argentina’s iconic grasslands, the majority of beef produced there now is grain-fed, or at least grain-finished. But Barcos said there are new players in the industry emerging every year — and that old-school methods that had fallen out of widescale practice, like grass-fed production, are now in vogue.

“I think that the scene is now changing. The challenge for the next years in Argentina, in my opinion, is to show that we can produce added-value beef, not just for local consumption, but also for the exportation markets.”

One such producer is Fernando Bianchi, who raises only grass-fed cattle two hours outside the city at La Julia Organics, where some of his thousand head of cattle were clustered around a patch of trees for shade. One particularly friendly cow came over to say hello.

“This is Dulce,” Bianchi said.

La Julia began operating in 1994 and continues to be run as a family farm. Bianchi has seen the industry go through much political and economic upheaval in that time.

“Meat was always a reason for political disputes,” he said. “They tried in every possible way to limit price increases, no matter how much that meant closing exports and complicating life for the producer, the exporter and everyone else.”

Looking ahead, with modern consumers being so discerning about quality, he sees more opportunity for small producers like La Julia to reassert the grass-fed practices that are Argentina’s heritage. 

“The feedlot industry will continue to operate here and around the world,” Bianchi said. “But there are more and more small producers working on grass-fed systems like this because the results are better.”