# Liebig Extract of Meat Company, Fray Bentos, Uruguay Oct '05



## GE066 (Oct 12, 2009)

I was cleaning up some pics of the Battersea Cranes, when i remembered i'd seen something similar.

I won't pretend these shots are any good, they were taken with a 4MP point and shoot. However hopefully they feed the imagination. I was unfamiliar with Uruguayan trespass laws, so didn't cross the barbed wire.

*HISTORY* (courtesy of Wikipedia)
The Liebig Extract of Meat Company (Lemco) was the originator of Liebig and Oxo meat extracts and later Oxo beef stock cubes. It was named after Baron Justus von Liebig, the German 19th-century organic chemist who founded it.

George Christian Giebert, a young engineer, read of Baron Liebig's work on Beef extracts, and wrote to him suggesting that they meet to discuss opening a manufacturing plant in South America. The Liebig Extract of Meat Company (Lemco) was established on 4 December 1865 in London with a capital of £150,000.

Lemco opened its factory, owned by the Societe de Fray Bentos Giebert & Cie., in 1866 on the banks of the Uruguay River at Villa Independencia, Uruguay, later called Fray Bentos, where the extract was manufactured using the flesh of cattle that would otherwise have been killed for their hides alone, bringing the cost of meat to one third of the European cost.

By 1875, 500 tonnes of the extract were being produced at Fray Bentos plant each year. It became a staple in middle-class European households and for soldiers, including the Allied forces of World War II. It was even used by European adventurers such as Sir Henry Morton Stanley on his trip to Africa. It is still sold by Liebig Benelux.

The works and yards at Fray Bentos ranked among the largest industrial complexes in South America and helped usher in the industrial revolution there. The plant played a major role in the development of Uruguay's cattle sector, which is still one of the country's main sources of export products.

The plant closed in 1979, following the an outbreak of Typhoid years before and the UKs entry to the EEC. It's products are now owned and produced by Premier Foods.

*PHOTOS*

1) Monument to Beef





2) made by a small child i'm guessing.




3) Entrance to Factory Complex




4) Side of Main Factory building




5) Buildings




6) Cranes




7) When Britain used to make things




8) Workers houses & offices





gracias por mirar


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## Goldie87 (Oct 12, 2009)

Interesting. That monument is a bit mad!


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## skittles (Oct 13, 2009)

Love the cranes 

Photos look good


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## Black Shuck (Oct 14, 2009)

Those Cranes remind me of one we had as a Monument on Yarmouth Quay about 20 years ago.


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## zimbob (Oct 14, 2009)

Looks well worth a nosey 

My father used to ship beef from Uruguay and Argentina to the UK back in the day, interesting to see this place


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## wolfism (Oct 14, 2009)

The photos look good - no reason to apologise for using a point-and-shoot. I think the infamous typhoid outbreak was in Aberdeen in 1962, caused by a tin of Argentinian (or maybe Uruguayan) corned beef. My old man lost a lot of money, as everyone in Scotland was told to cook everything before they ate it ... and he had several acres of ripe lettuce plants waiting to be harvested. They had to be ploughed down. 

Anyways - good to see some old Smith Rodley cranes.


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