On March 19, the General Administration of Customs of China suspended a shipment of 22 tons of beef from the slaughterhouse ArreBeef in Pérez Millán (Buenos Aires), after detecting the presence of chloramphenicol, an antibiotic banned in Argentine livestock production since 1995 due to its risks to human health.
The measure raised concerns in the agro-export chain and immediately activated diplomatic and technical channels between both countries.
Ongoing Investigation
The National Service for Agri-Food Health and Quality (Senasa), together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Secretariat of Agriculture, initiated a traceability protocol to reconstruct the path of the questioned batch, with the ability to identify even the establishment where the animals were raised.
The initial hypotheses point to:
- A possible false positive.
- The presence of compounds similar to chloramphenicol.
- Potential cross-contamination.
The company described the incident as “strange” and suggested that the product might have even been “planted,” although they acknowledged doubts about what happened.
Preventive Measures
China suspended new shipments from the Buenos Aires plant, while the Argentine government seeks to limit the scope of the decision to prevent the restriction from extending to other shipments in transit.
The agricultural counselor in Beijing, Hernán Viola, requested more technical information to accurately trace the origin of the incident and clear up inconsistencies.
Context of Domestic Beef Consumption
The controversy arises at a critical time for the Argentine meat industry:
- Meat consumption fell to the lowest level in 20 years, with an average of 47.3 kilos/year per capita.
- In March 2026, slaughtering reached 1.029 million heads in 340 establishments, one of the lowest levels in recent decades.
- The year-on-year decline was 10%, explained by the deterioration of wages and rising prices.
According to the Chamber of the Meat Industry and Commerce (CICCRA), the lower supply of livestock is due to the combination of droughts (2022-2024) and floods (2025), which raised the price of live animals to the highest level in 15 years.
Changes in Slaughtering
- In March, fewer males and more females were slaughtered, raising their participation to 47.8% of the total slaughter.
- In the first quarter of 2026, 2.973 million cattle were slaughtered, 7.6% less than in the same period of 2025.
- The slaughter of females reached 1.418 million, representing 47.7% of the total, a figure that compromises the sustainability of the herd.
The rejection of Argentine meat in China due to the presence of a banned antibiotic exposes vulnerabilities in the agro-export chain and occurs in a context of internal crisis in the sector. While it is being investigated whether it was a false positive or cross-contamination, the incident reinforces the need to strengthen sanitary controls and traceability to preserve the international reputation of Argentine meat.
