“how seriously are you going to ask for shredded beef? Have you gone mad?”. The conversation occurs in the bar, Javier Ruiz, in Seville, one of the few that still keep in their charter toast and sandwiches of meatloaf, although almost no one asks for. Four months have passed since the Government of andalusia, to activate the health alert by the largest outbreak of listeriosis in Spain, and two since it decrees its end, but the consumer confidence in that product does not take off. Either at Christmas, one of the periods of higher consumption of this typical product of the western zone of Andalusia. The entrepreneurs relied on these dates to start to revive its economy, but sales have not rebounded as they had thought, and the future looms grim.

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The regional government of Andalusia ended by the outbreak of listerioris The regional government of Andalusia ordered to withdraw all products of Flavors of the Parental “This is going to be the ruin of Benaoján”

“At Christmas I used to produce 22 tonnes of shredded beef, this year to 1.5,” explains Jose Cabo, manager of the company that bears his name, in Dos Hermanas (Seville). With the health alert completely paralysed the production of this variety, 80% of your business, up to mid-November, before the total absence of demand on the part of supermarkets or local hospitality. Of 22 employees has gone up to eight.

A loss of jobs that has been widespread in the sector, also in other companies, such as Sausage Queen, in which the shredded beef represents only 10% of its manufacturing. “We were 11 this summer, now we are six,” he laments to his manager, Manuel Reina. “If we survive is by the diversity of production, but Magrudis, that was an exception, he has fucked all of them,” he notes in reference to the factory sevillian origin of the multistate outbreak of listeriosis. Andalusia has 530 meat industries with a turnover of 1,800 million euros and give employment to 8,800 people, according to the Board.

The National Association of Industries of the Meat of Spain (awareness-raising) amounted to a 60% collapse of consumption of shredded beef in a full outbreak of listeriosis. Then, the Board announced a shock plan, which included a campaign promoting the consumption of meat and a special plan for the affected workers. Only one has materialized the first, diluted in a generic promotion of andalusian products in radio, television, social networks and trade fairs with the slogan “Taste the South”. “Entrepreneurs have asked us expressly not to vinculáramos directly the campaign to listeria”, they explain from the ministry of Agriculture.

Plan of shock inoperative

the staging of The commitment of the Board was held in Benaojan, a town of malaga, which lives almost exclusively on the meat industry and that it was appointed directly by the listeriosis when it was the third health alert in September. In the village are reluctant to talk about the effects of the crisis, but its mayor, Soraya García Mesa, says, “the effect was brutal.” “Came to a halt 100% of production and 30% of other products,” he says, and regrets that they have lost around 20 jobs and Christmas have not been added to the templates, as usual. García criticizes the lack of support on the part of the Board. “They have requested aid to withstand the losses of refunds and the expense of the destruction of the flesh, but have not been taken care of,” he says. Employment-ensure that no one has been in contact with them asking for help.

The mayor says that the momentum of the town Hall and the Málaga Provincial council in defence of the products of the municipality at the fairs has been crucial to halt a collapse all.

Something similar to what has happened in Paterna de Rivera (Cádiz), the third epicenter of the crisis. On September 6, the Board expanded the alert to all the production of shredded beef and pork of the company's Flavors of the Father. On the bridge of the Constitution, hundreds of people joined the International Day of the Carme Shredded, organized by the city Council in support of your company more famous. His owner, Bartolo Rodriguez, has not calculated yet the losses in a factory that came to bill about 600,000 euros a year. She only knows that they were two months closed, they have had to destroy 3,000 kilos of product and efecturar improvements by € 20,000.

“We have centuries eating meatloaf and pork rinds, and never had happened anything. By them —in reference to Magrudis— we must not pay the rest,” Rodriguez says. The entrepreneurs consulted share the statement, but in view of the low consumer confidence, few look to the future with optimism. “This is not going to be what it was going to be left in a residual by-product”, adventure Out.

Date Of Update: 27 December 2019, 00:00