Norberto Mórtola, president of the Citrus Producer's Association of Bella Vista spoke with Aires de Campo last Saturday and referred to the producers' situation in face of the XI National Orange Festival that was held in the town of Bella Vista on November 15, 16 and 17.
"Compared to last year's disaster, this was much better. We had a late frost that we hadn't forecast, which affected some producers whose fields had already been compromised last year," said Prieto.
The producer also said they were "concerned about the orange situation. Prices aren't good, we have very high production costs, it's getting out of hand, inputs are rising; but producers are used to fighting under these circumstances."
In this sense Prieto said the international price, for juice and fresh fruit, is the one that sets the trend. "We are losing competitiveness." He expressed concern by saying that "input prices shouldn't go up, but the big laboratories continue to increase them. That's why we feel helpless in this situation, but one has to learn to live with it."
On the other hand, he said that "in addition to oranges, we have limes, and the situation is different for limes. We have good prices, which are accompanying the production in general. On the one hand we have a disadvantage and the other, advantages."
Finally, he said there were good expectations. "This year, Tucumán was affected like we were last year. Unfortunately they were adversely affected by the strong frosts followed by severe droughts and we were favoured by them."
Source: Nearural.com