1.
LV Cranes at Buenos Aires pert
0.05

2.
SV Swedish ship PAN ACROSS TO wharf
0.11

3.
SV U.S. freighter in pert PAN ACROSS TO wharf
0.18

4.
SV Deckers along-side ship
0.21

5.
GV Buenos Aires street scene
0.24

6.
SV Butcher's sheep with beef
0.27

7.
SCU Shop name "Beef City"
0.30

8.
CU Meat prices PAN DOWN TO empty hooks on rack
0.37

9.
CU Chicken sign and fish sign (2 shots)
0.43

10.
CU PAN ALONG Fish in freezer.
0.51

11.
SV PAN ALONG Chickens on counter
1.00

12.
SV Women serving chicken to customer
1.04


FOREIGN SHIPS IN PORT: BUTCHER'S SHOP: EMPTY MEAT RACKS: ADVERTISING SIGNS FOR FISH AND CHICKENS: FISH IN FREEZER: CHICKENS BEING SOLD.




Initials BB/1200 DME/JB/BB/1230



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The people of argentina--who once ate more beef than those of any other country--new face a new restriction on the purchase of their favourite food. From the end of June beef will be available in local shops during only one week in every three.

The home sale of beef has been restricted in Argentina since regulations were introduced last March. Since then, beef eaters have been able to buy their meat only on alternate weeks.

The new restrictions do not apply to other meats. Still plentiful in the shops are mutton, pork, chicken and fish. But for most Argentineans the new restrictions strike hard. For them a fortnight without beef is a fortnight without meat.

The restrictions are matched by new efforts to sell beef abroad. A major beef shortage in Europe provides a ready market--and the ports of Argentina are often packed with refrigerated ships waiting to load meat. The export of beef provides a major part of Argentina's earnings, and any cut in export supplies would reflect quickly on the nation's economy
The problem of supplying the home market has been made more difficult by the rapid increase in Argentina's population. It is now more than 24 million--double the figure in 1950.

Argentina's is not the only South American nation which is restricting the sale of beef at home to help an export drive. Both Shile and Peru ban the sale of beef for certain periods each month--and in Uruguay too, the home sale of beef is rationed.