Weeks before the pear harvest, Rio Negro's secretary of Pomology, Alberto Diomedi, had stated that they would only be able to sell a little more than 400,000 tons of fruit if the national government didn't help them amend the system's economic conditions. The harshness of his words cut deep in the region: "The rest of the fruit will be lost, many fruits will remain on the plants."
His words reflect reality. An important part of the Valley's pears won't be marketed and something similar is going to happen with the apples.
Given this scenario, the requirement made by the national and provincial government about companies buying all of the producers' fruit no longer makes sense as much of the fruits will remain on the farms.
The Valley's fruit sector situation is really worrying. For the first time in its history, the sector didn't export pears during January; a consequence of economic, financial, trade, and labour issues.
There is at least one ship coming to San Antonio but estimates are it will only depart next weekend, as there currently isn't enough fruit to export.
As detailed in the accompanying graph, in recent decades pear exports to overseas markets during the first month of the season hit record highs and lows of 42,000 and 2,000 tons respectively. This reflects sales between $3 million and $50 million in the first days of harvest, taking into account the highs and lows of the placement season.
Historically, the Valley tried to anticipate the Williams pear crop (the main export variety in the region) to start selling in the northern hemisphere markets when their local supply was at its lowest levels. The ships departed in the second week of January to meet the demand of the importers from the north. In some years, the prices achieved by these exports were twice as much as the historical average price achieved during the season.
This year, the perfect storm brewed in the Valley and none of this could be done. There were size and pressure problems for the pear so the harvest had to be delayed for a week. Additionally, producers expected the Nation would grant them economic help to lift the fruit, but the funds never arrived (at least, not in a timely manner) and a lot of the pears ended on the ground; a demonstration of the producers' impotence and the lack of response to the crisis in the sector. The exporters were also expecting some kind of resolution to their demands to see if they could buy the producers' fruit. In this case, the Kirchner administration also ignored the issue. Finally, there was a union conflict that, until this weekend, stopped the entry of pears to the sheds so the fruit that lost pressure was lost.
The first estimate of the private sector is that the sector would only be able to market 200,000 tons of the 420,000 tons of Williams left in the fields to harvest. "And we must see how much fruit from this volume is good enough to be exported," said a top executive who places his offer overseas.
What wasn't done in three weeks should be done in just over one week and that complicates any company's logistics. There will also be important losses in the fruit that is harvested because the fruit entering the sheds won't be processed in a timely manner, which will affect the whole postharvest conservation process.
Diomedi anticipated there was going to be hell in the Valley. According to official statistics, on average, some 230,000 tons of Williams pear are destined for the fresh market every year, 170,000 tons of which are exported abroad and 50,000 tons absorbed by the domestic market.
The other problem generated by the delay in the Williams pear's harvesting and processing is that it will displace the Gala apple, which should have entered the packing facilities this week so that it would be processed. After the Gala apple, comes the D'Anjou pear and after that, the Packham's pear. Thus, all of the Valley's apples and pears will have to be processed within three of four weeks, which poses a serious problem for logistics; yet another problem to contend with.
Source: rionegro.com.ar