Uruguay Will Convene Dairy Industry for International Congress
The congress is being organised by the Uruguayan Association of Dairy Technicians (Autel) and will take place at the Nirvana hotel. Its participants will include technicians, professionals, companies and institutions connected with the dairy chain.
Sessions on processing will address the manufacture of cheese, dulce de leche, yoghurt and ice cream. The programme will also examine cheese yield and other technologies used in industrial production.
Industrial automation will form a separate part of the agenda. The UTU Centre for Industrial Automation and Mechatronics, known as Caime, will discuss the training required for professionals working with these technologies. A session on mental health and work will consider changes affecting employment in the sector.
International trade will be another central topic. Valeria Csukasi, Uruguay’s deputy foreign minister, will open the event with an examination of global markets, agreements between Mercosur and the European Union, and other commercial-integration processes.
Mercedes Baraibar, an economist at Uruguay’s National Dairy Institute, will speak on the second day about regional trends in dairy consumption. The subject is significant for a sector in which exports and access conditions in overseas markets influence business activity.
Andrés Vaamonde, Autel’s vice-president, said productivity had been increasing in both primary production and industrial processing. He attributed higher milk output to technological and genetic advances, while noting that climate variability continued to affect the sector and required changes to production strategies.
Vaamonde said Uruguay should compete through product quality rather than volume because it is a small country. He highlighted domestic cheese, yoghurt and ice-cream production, as well as the continuing role of artisanal cheesemaking. He also said that Uruguay remained a price-taker in international markets, leaving external price references with a direct effect on the dairy business.
