Stone fruit producers - eg plums and peaches - from southern Mendoza are worried about the sharp drop in prices and low profitability. According to producers, the profit margin they achieve doesn't allow them to cover production costs and the fruit is being lost in the plants.
In different assemblies, the entities that gather the producers decided to ask the provincial government for economic aid so that producers can get past this crisis.
"A demonstrative and very graphic example of the consequence of the current season 2017/2018, in which we had a normal harvest in terms of volume, is that due to the lack of demand, producers were only able to market a small proportion for transport, while most of the harvest had to be destined to make pulp at a sale price that was 30% lower than the sale price for transport ($ 1.80 per kilo)," stated the Argentine Rural Unions (CRA).
The cost of harvesting and transporting the fruit represents 70% of its sales value, leaving producers with only $ 0.60 per kilo to cover the rest of the production costs and their subsistence.
According to producers, in this economic context they need 40 kilos of peaches to pay for a liter of diesel (one of the main productive inputs), 1,600 kilos to pay what a tractor consumes a day, and 2,500 kilos if we include the tractor drivers payment.
Source: clarin.com