Uruguay, Fray Bentos and OXO

You might ask what Uruguay, Fray Bentos and OXO have in common, (especially, perhaps only, if you are a Brit)? It is a story I found quite interesting. But first a little about the journey to Uruguay.

Northeast Argentina is quite narrow, a peninsular between Paraguay and Brazil. On the western side of the peninsular is national route (RN) 12, on the central/eastern side is RN14; a few roads connect between them, I chose to use provincial route 11. That proved a good decision, it only runs 30 miles but in that short distance were some nice curves and it also picked up elevation, topping out at 1,800ft. That doesn't amount to much compared to the other countries visited, but after a week of generally flat, straight roads, and another 700 miles of the same to Uruguay in prospect, route 11 provided welcome relief. 

Friday night was spent in La Cruz, at a hotel a stones throw from the Rio Uruguay, which like most of the rivers in the area is in flood, though now receding. 

Brazil is across the river.

Another 300+ miles on Saturday and an overnight stay in Gualaguaychú, a short 25 miles from the border with Uruguay. The Rio Uruguay has to be crossed to reach Uruguay from Argentina. Some years ago an impressive bridge was built to connect the countries, though the day it opened it was occupied and blocked by environmental protestors from Argentina. The object of their fury, a paper mill the Uruguayans were building on the banks of the river, just upstream of the bridge. The protest and the blockade lasted 5 years. Long since gone, so my journey was uninterrupted. 

It is a toll bridge and motorcyclists have to pay, though a trivial amount compared to other vehicles. Once paid there are booths that house the immigration officials, an entry stamp to Uruguay doubles as the exit stamp from Argentina, the two countries have made an agreement for efficiency. Though the day I showed up the immigration officials were indoors (it was quite chilly outside). So I had to put the bike in reverse and duck walk it back to get to a parking spot. 

Once inside the passport was stamped, the temporary import permit to Argentina was turned in to their customs agent and the Uruguayan counterpart issued a new one for his country. Each agent stamps a pink square of paper, don't lose it because you drive up the road 400 yards and hand it into a guard (loose description) who waves you through. Welcome to Uruguay, 30 minutes in all. Take a look.

The eagle eyed will note that I took a turn off the main highway to Montevideo to visit Fray Bentos. Yes, Fray Bentos is a town, not just a brand of corned beef or steak and kidney pie in a tin. The brand name is not an accident, Fray Bentos was once home to the largest meat processing factory in the world and lent its name to some of the products the factory produced. It is also the place where the process of creating concentrated beef extract was invented, those products went by the brand name OXO. (It helps to be British, both household names for generations of Brits and still available today). 

The factory itself closed in 1979. From 1863 to 1960 it was under British ownership, from 1920 called the Anglo Company; in 1960 Anglo sold out as the fortunes of the Uruguayan beef industry were in decline (as Europe and other nations increased domestic production). It was sold (the factory, not the brand names) to the Uruguayan government in an effort to try and diminish the economic impact on the area. The site had 36 buildings, generated power for the plant and many of the local homes in Barrio Anglo (the first electricity supplied to a home in Uruguay was from the Fray Bentos factory) and employed 4,000 workers at its peak. However, the government finally threw in the towel in 1979, declared it a national heritage site and let it slowly rot. Fortunes changed in 2015 when UNESCO declared it a world heritage site for humanity (because of the impact on global nutrition at the dawning of the industrial age - for example OXO kept troops on both sides in WW1 nourished), a museum was created and certain parts of the factory can be viewed (asbestos insulation included free!). I took the tour (luckily the tour guide spoke English and was happy to use it) and spent two and a half hours fascinated by a place that until recently I had no idea existed and that was responsible for products I recall as a child.

The slaughter house, processing 1,500-1,600 head of cattle a day, 7 days a week. 

Scraps and rubbish meat, fat, and connective tissue were boiled with water, in multiple helical coil heated tanks, to extract the protein. The floating solids and fats were manually removed from the tanks and the liquid filtered to remove small particles. After filtration the liquid was sent into evaporators to be concentrated (OXO was originally sold as a concentrated liquid/gel, before a process was developed to remove all the water, creating a flat 'cake' that was cut and wrapped - say hello to OXO cubes!).

It took 32kg of beef material to create 1kg of the concentrated extract OXO liquid. That left a lot of cooked solid beef material to do something with. Have you ever eaten corned beef from a can? Hmmm, I really like(d) it. With the protein removed the nutritional value of corned beef is low, but it does provide bulk - which kept the WW1 soldiers feeling full when in the trenches, OXO liquid couldn't do that. Interesting huh!

A couple of other fascinating features were pointed out - the electricity generation control room and refrigeration plant had granite or marble floors, so did the faces to the electrical control panels. Expensive materials, but materials that do not conduct electricity (concrete does, it has water in it); it was used to save workers and more likely machinery from electric shocks in the event of accidents.

On the other hand the roadways outside were paved in iron plate. The plate was used as ballast by the ships that came up river to transport beef and finished products to the UK. The beef was the ballast on the return journey, the plate was not needed. It began to build up dockside, so it was repurposed as a road covering in areas of vehicle traffic, more durable than concrete but slippery when wet and not the place to stand during the frequent thunderstorms. So the workers were safe in the buildings but on their own outside!

This is the first domestic electric light bulb illuminated in Uruguay, courtesy of the Anglo Company. 

The last photograph shows two groves worn into a wooden floor. They were found under the desk of an Anglo office worker who spent 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week at the same desk. He was a tall man at a small desk. Other than two 10 minute breaks a day, plus a short lunch, office workers had to remain at their desks. To exercise his long legs he shuffled them backwards and forwards, after 43 years it left its mark. Discovered after he retired.

Enough, but now you know the answer to the connection between Uruguay, Fray Bentos and OXO and a little more. Trivial Pursuits anyone?

All for now.

T2