Amidst an unprecedented predicament for the agricultural sector, blueberry producers in the Republic of Uruguay sent an SOS to the central administration.
The Union of Fruit Producers and Exporters of fruits and vegetables from Uruguay (Upefruy) sent an official letter to the head of the Ministry of Economy, Danilo Astori, requesting that the government "restore the fiscal solvency to the level that prevailed up until the 2015 harvest and to make plans to overcome the current drawbacks in the coming years."
According to El Observador de Uruguay's website, the letter, which was signed by the President of the Upefruy, Carlos Fraschini, states that it is "almost impossible to have a profitable production in Uruguay because, historically, blueberry prices have decreased, and because of production costs, including harvesting, packing, and transport, as well as the costs of entry in each market (tariffs)."
To illustrate the difficult moment, the letter reminds Astori of an earlier note, dated Nov. 14, 2016, in which they portrayed how and why the blueberry sector had declined since 2003; how nearly 75% of the companies closed and more than half of the cultivated area contracted, going from 820 to 370 hectares.
"Despite having negative numbers and haven't been able to recover their investments, the farms that are still producing try to combine improved plants and new earlier and more productive varieties to optimize their capacity," they stated.
Last November producers requested the Government "to maintain the VAT tax credit for the year 2016 to strengthen this transformation, as the Executive branch is authorized by the 19.407 legislation to do so."
According to the letter, even though producers couldn't harvest half of the blueberry area in 2016 because of price issues, the sector required more than 370 thousand jobs (71.500 permanent and almost 300 thousand seasonal jobs during the year: harvesting and pruning) in the country."
Source: segundoenfoque.com