The Argentines that were moved by the sad image of millions of kilos of pears and apples rotting on the farms of northern Patagonia should now turn their gaze to the coast, where there are about 80 million kilos of oranges and mandarins that won't be harvested this year for lack of profitability, according to estimates made by producers. The volume represents more than 5% of the national supply.
In early September, citrus producers from Corrientes and Entre Rios had already warned that his activity was in a terminal situation, as they were charging only 0.50 pesos per kilo of fruit, when the cost of producing it came to 1.50 pesos. Now Federcitrus, the national agency, has warned that at least 50,000 tons of mandarins and 30,000 tons of oranges would be left hanging from the trees. The fruit that isn't going to be harvested is the one that could not be exported due to a lack of competitiveness and that can't be dumped in the internal market, as it is saturated and paying prices that are lower than in 2014.
Last year, Argentina produced about 486,000 tons of mandarins and just over 1 million tons of oranges. Unlike the apples and pears from Alto Valle, which are mainly exported, 50% of the mandarin production and 65% of the orange production is destined to the local market.
Business abroad, however, is key to sustain an industry that, in coastal areas alone, has 2,000 producers and generates 40,000 jobs. This year, shipments have fallen sharply because Argentina continues having a cheap dollar while its main customers, especially Russia and the European Union, have strongly devalued their currencies. That is, once export values are converted into pesos, they are also lower than in 2014.
As in many other regional economies, growers lament the absence of relief measures by the State and claim that, on the contrary, the government insists on applying a suffocating tax burden and has even appropriated resources that do not belong to it by delaying the refund of VAT to exporting firms without any explanation.
Source: ieco.clarin.com