Day 068 - 16 Dec 94 - Page 54
1 Brazil and returned to Uruguay?
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, I think you have got again at
4 cross-purposes. What Mr. Morris was asking is why does it
5 go to Brazil to be processed?
6 A. OK. It goes to Brazil because in Uruguay it is a very
7 small country. We have a very limited number of
8 restaurants. That last, probably last time I was there
9 were three. It does not justify to have any plant with
10 three restaurants, and Uruguay pass a lot of beef that is a
11 player in the world market, and the people in Uruguay, for
12 public relations, we do not want to import products to an
13 exported country when it is beef, we do not want to import
14 beef into Uruguay when Uruguay exports beef.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think it is the first part of your answer
17 which answered Mr. Morris' question. There are only three
18 restaurants, so it is not worth having a processing plant
19 in Uruguay for that quantity.
20
21 MR. MORRIS: So Opticarnes in Uruguay, Mondevedio, that is a
22 process plant, is it not?
23 A. Which one?
24
25 Q. Opticarnes in Uruguay. If you remember, that was in the
26 section on Malaysia which was actually D, section D. It is
27 the last document in D. Yes? You gave evidence on this
28 already.
29 A. Yes.
30
31 Q. They export to Malaysia and that is a process plant, yes?
32 A. No. That is a slaughterhouse. That has nothing to do
33 with, not necessarily have anything to do with McDonald's,
34 Uruguay. They are a slaughterhouse where our people,
35 McDonald's, Malaysia, bulk buys or at that time bought meat
36 from.
37
38 Q. So they do not buy it in pattie form ---
39 A. That is correct.
40
41 Q. -- when they import from Uruguay?
42 A. That is correct.
43
44 Q. If we move on to the Czech Republic next, if we move on, we
45 have no questions on that. Argentina is J, we have no
46 questions on that. Argentina, under "beef" it has a dash;
47 do you know any countries that Argentinian beef is exported
48 to from that Frigorifico?
49 A. Frigorifico, yes, Rioplatense.
50
51 Q. Sorry?
52 A. Frigorifico Rioplatense.
53
54 Q. Yes, that is the name of the plant. Do they export to
55 Europe? They are EC approved, are they not?
56 A. That is correct. That is a big facility that has
57 deboning as well as processing plants. They themselves
58 export to Europe to the EC. It is EC approved facility.
59 We have, just like in the case of Costa Rica, we have our
60 lines, a McDonald's lines, where we process our patties.
