Argentina, a country built on beef and the biggest consumer of the meat, will be spared the ignominy of having to import its steaks next year by a growing taste for pork.

Argentina's beef production will slide to an eight-year low of 2.8m tonnes next year as the breaking of the drought, which has lasted two years at some ranches, encourages livestock farmers to restock rather than send cattle for slaughter.

However, while this would in past years been insufficient to meet both domestic demand and export commitments, with consumption hitting 3.2m tonnes last year, Argentina will balance its beef books by turning to other meats, a report from US agriculture officials in Buenos Aires said.

Alternative meats 

"While some industry contacts estimate that beef will have to be imported in 2010 due to reduced supplies, [the bureau] expects that reduced supplies to be matched by a reduction in consumption and lower exports," the briefing said.

Pork, which has historically "always faced fierce competition from inexpensive beef", looks likely to be the favoured alternative, even though most is imported.

"There is potentially significant room for pork consumption," the report said, noting that the Argentine appetite for poultry was already in line with that in other countries.

"Consumption of poultry will continue to increase marginally."

Argentines eat about 65 kilogrammes of beef each year, with annual consumption of poultry pegged by official data at 30kg per person and pork at 7kg, mainly in the form of cold cuts. Lamb and mutton consumption is put at 1kg a year.

'Left to die' 

Argentina's cattle numbers are expected to slide below 50m head next year, more than 10% down in two years, because of the "liquidation" of herds in the face of what has been termed the country's worst drought in half a century.

"In some cases, cattle losses were significant," the report said, noting that some breeding cows had been left to "die on the ranch because of lack of feed or water"

"Thousands of hectares of pasture were destroyed. Most ranches are in a very delicate situation due to the limited availability of pastures and poor condition of cattle."

Calf production is estimated to have fallen by about 20% to 12.0m head this year.