Producer · Azul, Buenos Aires

Azul Natural Beef

Azul Natural Beef S.A. is an Argentine beef packer based in Azul, Buenos Aires Province, which sells beef under the Devesa brand; its plant reopened in 2017 and was approved in 2019 to export to China and the United States.

Last reviewed 22 Oct 202612 sources

A plant in Azul, sold as Devesa

Azul Natural Beef S.A. operates a beef slaughter and processing plant in the city of Azul, in the centre of Buenos Aires Province. Devesa is the brand under which its beef is sold. According to a 2019 report, the plant had closed in 2010 and reopened in 2017, and employed 665 people; another 2019 report, which gives the earlier operator as Establecimiento Frigorífico Azul S.A. (EFASA), dates the reopening to 2015; the discrepancy has not been resolved.

A 2025 report in the local press, citing the company's website, describes a plant with 15,000 m² of buildings, 1,200 m² of holding pens, a slaughter capacity of 900 head a day and cold storage for up to 3,000 tonnes of beef, with about 950 employees, working for both the domestic and the export market. Steakpedia has not checked these figures against the company's own documents.

This entry is built only from public sources listed below. It has not been reviewed by the company; data that could not be verified have been left blank.

The company’s official website is devesa.com, which presents Devesa as the brand of Azul Natural Beef S.A. In its trade-fair listings the company describes itself as family-owned and says that more than 60 % of its cattle are raised on its own farms in the Pampas; that figure is the company’s own and has not been independently verified.

Cattle bought on the Pampas

The company buys cattle from producers on the Pampas, the grassland region described in Argentine beef. One documented example: the animals behind its 2021 grain-fed competition entry were raised by the livestock firm Egeo SACI in Carlos Tejedor, in the west of Buenos Aires Province. Breeds and herd size have not been verified from public sources.

Pasture and 120-day grain lines

Public reports describe both pasture-finished and grain-finished lines. A 2020 report on the brand’s launch in Malaysia refers to a 120-day grain-fed product. The share of each line and the feeding specifications have not been verified. See Grass-fed vs grain-fed for what these terms mean.

In Argentina the two systems usually share the first stage: calves are raised on pasture with their mothers and grow on grass. They then either finish on pasture or spend the last weeks or months in a feedlot (engorde a corral) on a grain-based ration. The animals behind the company's 2022 grain-fed competition entries were finished in a feedlot by the same livestock firm, Egeo, according to the Argentine press. How the 120 days reported in Malaysia were counted has not been verified.

SENASA plant, World Steak Challenge gold

Slaughter and processing take place at the company’s plant in Azul, under the oversight of Argentina’s animal-health service, SENASA. In 2019 the plant was among the establishments approved to export chilled beef to China and to the United States. Argentina does not grade marbling in the way of the USDA or Japanese systems (see Grading systems).

In the 2021 World Steak Challenge, held in Dublin, a Devesa rib steak (bife ancho) received gold medals in the grain-fed and grass-fed categories, according to the Argentine agricultural press. In the 2022 edition, according to Infocampo, its entries in the grain-fed category received gold for a rib steak and for a tenderloin, silver for a striploin, and a bronze medal for a cut the report does not name. The World Steak Challenge is a commercial competition in which a panel judges cooked samples for tenderness, juiciness and flavour; it does not grade carcasses.

In August 2021 a joint resolution of the Argentine government (Resolución Conjunta 6/2021) listed Azul Natural Beef S.A. among the plants approved to export kosher beef to Israel, with a cap of 218.75 tonnes a month per plant. Kosher beef is slaughtered and inspected under rabbinical supervision according to Jewish dietary law; the approval concerns the plant, not every product it sells.

For the 2026/27 quota year, the company was among the exporters that received an allocation of Argentina's share of the European Union's Hilton quota, according to the agricultural press, which did not give its tonnage. The Hilton quota dates from the GATT Tokyo Round negotiations of 1979 and takes its name from the hotel where they were held; it lets several countries ship high-quality chilled boneless beef to the EU at a reduced duty. Argentina's share is 29,389 tonnes a year, divided among plants and cattle projects, and the beef must come from pasture-finished cattle.

According to its own exhibitor listings at Gulfood (Dubai), the company holds Halal certification and runs an Angus programme endorsed by OIA (Organización Internacional Agropecuaria), and aims its production at Europe, the Middle East and Asia. These are company statements; the certificates themselves have not been reviewed.

China, the US, Malaysia, Israel, the EU

Documented markets: China (first chilled shipment of 96 tonnes to Shanghai in 2019), the United States (export approval reported in 2019), Malaysia (restaurant supply reported in 2020), Israel (kosher export approval, 2021) and the European Union (Hilton quota allocation, 2026/27). Actual volumes shipped to each market have not been verified. Religious-slaughter certifications such as Halal have not been verified from a certifying body’s public record for this entry.

Field data

No field data have been published for this producer yet.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

12

1. Agrofy News. "A dos años de la reapertura, un frigorífico ya exporta carne bovina a China." 24 October 2019. news.agrofy.com.ar/noticia/183713/dos-anos-reapertura-frigorifico-ya-exporta-carne-bovina-china
2. Bichos de Campo. "Producido en Carlos Tejedor y faenado en Azul, un bife argentino se ubicó entre los mejores filetes del mundo." November 2021. bichosdecampo.com/producido-en-carlos-tejedor-y-faenado-en-azul-un-bife-argentino-se-ubico-entre-los-mejores-filetes-del-mundo
3. Robb Report Malaysia. "Tuck in, specially prepared succulent Argentinian beef is now available at Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur." 18 September 2020. robbreport.com.my/savour/le-meridien-kl-prime-devesa-argentinian-beef-steak
4. Gulfood (Dubai World Trade Centre). Exhibitor and brand listings: Azul Natural Beef (2024) and Devesa (2025, 2026). gulfood.com/gulfood-2025-brands/devesa
5. Devesa Argentine Beef · Azul Natural Beef SA. Official website. www.devesa.com
6. Infocampo. "La mejor carne del mundo es Argentina: bifes y lomos nacionales ganaron en un concurso mundial." 5 October 2022. www.infocampo.com.ar/?p=480101
7. Infocampo. "Del fracaso al éxito: un frigorífico que había cerrado y ahora exporta a China." 23 October 2019. www.infocampo.com.ar/?p=428034
8. Infozona. "Preocupación en Azul por el despido de 40 trabajadores del frigorífico Devesa." 29 April 2025. www.infozona.com.ar/?p=345442
9. Aduana News. "El Gobierno aprobó la nómina de establecimientos y plantas habilitadas para exportar carne kosher a Israel" (Resolución Conjunta 6/2021, Boletín Oficial). 24 August 2021. aduananews.com/el-gobierno-aprobo-la-nomina-de-establecimientos-y-plantas-habilitadas-para-exportar-carne-kosher-a-israel
10. Agrolatam. "Cuota Hilton 2026/27: el Gobierno repartió un negocio millonario y definió quiénes exportarán carne premium." 6 July 2026. www.agrolatam.com/ganaderia/cuota-hilton-2026-2027-frigorificos-exportacion-carne-beneficiarios
11. Wikipedia. "Hilton Quota." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_Quota
12. Farmers Weekly. "How Argentina is producing beef for EU export." www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/beef/argentina-producing-beef-eu-export

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