Argentine Rural Producers Reject ViSEC System Required for EU Exports
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A group of 47 rural societies, associations and private producers from different Argentine provinces issued a statement calling on producers not to join the ViSEC system, the platform used to certify beef and soybean shipments bound for the European Union. The signatories argued that the certificates issued by this system have no legal basis, either under European or Argentine regulations, and stressed that the only law applicable to the matter is Law 26.331, the Forest Law.
The complaint comes as the European Union's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR 1115/23) approaches, which requires proof that products such as beef, soybeans, timber, rubber, cocoa, coffee and palm oil do not come from deforested land. The regulation, which has already been postponed twice, is set to take full effect on December 30, and Argentina has advanced preparations through ViSEC to certify soybean and beef shipments to that destination.
Criticism of ViSEC's Role
The signatory entities questioned the fact that ViSEC is not a state platform but a private association that, in their view, seeks to take over functions that should belong to Senasa or the Secretariat of Agriculture. They noted that the system is funded by the European Union, AL-Invest Verde, Global Gateway, The Nature Conservancy, Tropical Forest Alliance, Peterson, Land Innovation Fund and the exporters' chamber CIARA, and denounced that it requests access to production information protected by tax confidentiality as well as additional data never required under EU regulations, since the EU only requested geolocation data.
Defense of the System
From within the meatpacking industry, FIFRA's vice president, Daniel Urcía, defended adherence to ViSEC Carne, noting that the process carries no cost for producers and does not constitute a certification, but rather an administrative procedure to enable the use of already existing data. He warned that failing to register could leave producers out of a key market, since European importers require documentation proving compliance with the regulation throughout the entire supply chain.
Allegations of Price Discounts
The dispute escalated when Confederaciones Rurales Argentinas (CRA) denounced that exporting meatpacking plants were applying price discounts on cattle from producers not registered with ViSEC Carne, even though the organization maintains that no European or Argentine regulation requires adherence to the platform or authorizes price discounts for not doing so. Days later, the Gorina meatpacking plant confirmed this practice, notifying its suppliers that as of November 1 it will require that the RENSPA of origin for cattle destined for the European Union be registered with ViSEC Carne prior to shipment, under penalty of devaluation.
The level of adherence to the system remains low relative to the total universe of producers: according to reports cited in the rural entities' complaint, only around 12,000 operators are registered out of a total of approximately 250,000 agricultural producers, while another source put the figure at around 14,000 registered RENSPA out of more than 200,000 existing sanitary registrations nationwide.
