The salami quarantine | The voice

From Colonia Caroya and Oncativo, each year about a million kilos of salami and other sausages come out.

It is an industry that Italian immigrants deeply rooted in Córdoba, which adds value to the production of pigs and which employs more than 300 people directly.

But in these weeks it suffers in the crisis scenario generated by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Daniel Urcia, vice president of the Federation of Argentine Regional Refrigeration Industries (Fifra), the consumption of sausages fell by up to 70 percent and this complicates the companies in the sector, which are almost entirely small and medium-sized.

“The first two weeks of the quarantine were very hard, sales fell by up to 85 percent. Now activity has begun to recover a little; in our company this week we are at 50 percent due to the demand for supermarkets,” he said. Diego Grión, from Familia Grión SRL, one of the longest established firms in Colonia Caroya.

Among the main shocks for the sector is the paralysis of one of its main penetration channels: bars, restaurants and hotels.

In the same way, “the commerce in the premises located on the route fell between 70 and 80 percent, there is no tourism and only heavy traffic remained,” Grion said.

An additional problem is the impact on small producers.

For example, Familia Grión produces gluten-free salami with which it reaches supermarkets and can at least keep part of the company active.

But it is not a possibility within everyone’s reach.

“He who has his own butcher shop does not feel it so much. But he who depends on the client coming and buying the product, and not on the product going to the client, the one who lives from his small shop only on sausages, is very complicated” , synthesized.

Oncativo

The picture is almost the same. “Easy, there is a drop of between 30 and 40 percent in sales. The entire gastronomic channel, the hotels, fell; the tourist part is at zero,” said Larry Bartoloni, of the Don Ramón SA establishment.

In this case, they have been maintained with sales in butchers and in wine shops, pantries and warehouses.

“But I have colleagues who are on the route and the highway that are empty. And it was just past Easter and the March holidays. They have had a drop in billing of more than 70 percent,” he said.

In addition, although in the gastronomic sector there are firms that intensified the delivery, the volume of that channel is just a percentage of the usual activity, which is combined with the retraction in consumption.