Uruguay's meat-salting enterprises are the main stimulus…

Uruguay's meat-salting enterprises are the main stimulus for the industrialization of livestock products.

In 1865 the Liebig Meat Extract Company of London opens a meat-extract factory at Fray Bentos on the Rio Uruguay to supply the European armies, thus initiating diversification in the sector.

This type of meat processing, however, is dependent on cheap cattle.

As the price of cattle increases, the meat-extract industry declines, along with the saladeros, which prepare salted and sun-dried meat.

Cuba and Brazil are the main purchasers of salted meat; Europe, of meat extract; and the United States and Europe, of leather and wool.