The Port of Tarragona increases livestock exports by 35% in the first 10 months

Since 2012, the year in which this service began, this traffic has registered an exponential growth

Since 2012, and up to this October, the Port of Tarragona has moved a total of 1.14 million head of livestock, in 300 vessels designed for this cargo. And if we speak of cattle, and add the forecasts for the close of 2017, it is expected that these will exceed the best expectations, reaching 300,000 units. With these figures, the technical workshop on the export of live animals, which is organised every year by the Catalan Association of Beef Producers (Associació Catalana de Productors de Boví de Carn - ASOPROVAC), opened this Thursday in the Port Authority’s conference room. The conference was inaugurated by Pedro Bernal, head of the Port of Tarragona’s Sales and Business Development Division.

Continuing with the figures for livestock traffic, so far in 2017 Tarragona’s port infrastructure has exported more than 308,996 head of livestock up to October, which represents an increase of 35.7% compared to the same period in the previous year. Specifically, the cargo in beef cattle has increased by 163%, reaching almost 80,000 units, and confirms the upward trend in these exports. For its part, the movement of sheep is also keeping up, growing by 16.2% to 229,562 units between January and October of 2017.

To arrive at these figures, commercial relations with third party countries, especially Libya and most recently Turkey and Egypt, are important.

For the fifth year in a row, the conference brought together the top producers of cattle and other livestock in Catalonia. Under the title 'Exporting: safeguarding of our economy", the meeting was an opportunity to demonstrate the significance of the volume of exports for the sector, and in particular those aimed at countries in North Africa and the Mediterranean basin.

In addition to Bernal, Ricard Gòdia, chairman of ASOPROVAC Catalunya, Prof. Carles Buxadé, Chair of the ETSIA Madrid, Matilda Moro, technical director of ASOPROVAC Nacional, Javier Lopez, director of the company Provacuno, Albert Sanz, veterinarian for the Animal Health Service of the Generalitat de Catalunya's DARP, and Moises Perez, of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness also participated in the conference.

The workshop left participants with the main idea that the export of beef via infrastructure such as the Port of Tarragona is an important route for the livestock sector which, at the same time, ensures production. Moreover, in the long run, everything seems to indicate that the destination of such exports – which are currently required mainly by European regions and the Mediterranean basin - will have to include other countries in the rest of the world.