The president of the Federation of Fruit Producers of Rio Negro and Neuquen, Sebastián Hernandez, stated that producers of pears and apples lost $ 2.5 per kilo harvested.
Last week the national government regulated the Emergency Law for the production of pears and apples, with special benefits for the production chain of Neuquen, Rio Negro, Mendoza, San Juan, and La Pampa.
Sebastian Hernandez, the president of the Federation of Fruit Producers of Rio Negro and Neuquen, said: "Producers are satisfied with this regulation, we must make it effective, these are mitigating measures. This Law will help reduce production costs by formalizing a deferral in the payment of their commitments with the AFIP and ANSES for a period of 365 days, and, once this period is over, promoting the payment of the amount due through 90 installments."
This Friday, the Fruit Table will meet to continue searching for solutions. The meeting will be headed by the Minister of Agricultural Industry, and producers will request compensation to face the harvest work.
The pear and apple production chains of the Alto Valle area have been in a deep crisis for a long time, as they have lost their competitiveness due to high production costs. As a result, "Argentina lost the Brazilian market. Chile was more competitive and managed to stay with that market, even though our fruit quality was excellent. The tax burden in Chile does not surpass 2%, while in Argentina the activity has a 32% tax."
Prices vs costs
Hernandez also said that the producers' situation was quite complicated and that they were having losses, "we have been paid $3 per kilo for our fruit. Production costs stood at $5.5, we charged $3, so we lost $2.5. It's no wonder producers are slowly disappearing."
The manager of the Federation of Fruit Producers of Rio Negro and Neuquen said that "75% of the costs of the sector are the payment of labor, and employees aren't earning a fortune in this activity, as they are being paid an average salaries of $15 thousand, which is not too much. At present 70% of the pear production is exported and this year we will barely export 25% because of our very high costs and because we are very expensive for the world."
Source: infobae.com