Argentine beef shipments to the United States nearly tripled in the first seven months of 2026 while domestic beef consumption fell to its lowest level in more than two decades.
Exports to the U.S. reached 67,118 metric tons between January and July, up from 22,183 tons in the same period of 2025, according to figures reported by Infobae. The United States’ share of Argentina’s total beef exports rose from 6% to 17%, making it the country’s second-largest beef market behind China.
At home, annualized per-capita beef consumption fell to 46.3 kilograms in July, the lowest in more than 20 years, as more of the national herd was sent to export markets willing to pay higher prices.
Even so, Argentines still eat more beef per person than anyone else on Earth, ahead of neighboring Uruguay and Brazil. From the 1950s through the 1980s, though, annual consumption averaged around 84 kilograms per person, nearly twice today’s figure.
Price is the main driver. Argentina’s average beef export price hit $7,123 per ton in July, up from a year earlier, and beef prices at home have been rising faster than the country’s overall 33.8% annual inflation rate, squeezing a staple long central to the Argentine diet and household budget.
Beef export revenue reached $2.77 billion in the first seven months of the year, with nearly all of that growth coming from higher prices rather than higher shipment volumes.
The U.S. opening followed a February trade agreement that expanded Argentina’s tariff-preferential quota fivefold, from 20,000 to 100,000 metric tons annually. But Washington still sets the terms: in late August, the Trump administration created a separate, temporary tariff-free quota for countries without an existing preferential arrangement, aimed at containing U.S. beef prices during a domestic cattle-herd shortage, and it explicitly excluded Argentina, which already has its own dedicated quota. Brazil, which lacks one, stands to be the biggest beneficiary.