It's been a rough year for Castellón's citrus sector. Citrics de Nules announced it stopped activities and Greenmed announced the closure of its plant in Almassora. Now, Agrios de Nules, the company based in Burriana that specializes in citrus exports, has announced that it will start pre-insolvency proceedings. In addition, as it has informed its workers, it's not even going to start the season.
Pre-insolvency proceedings are a figure that allows a company that cannot cope with its debts to start talks with its creditors to reach a restructuring plan within a maximum period of 3 months.
As a result of the end of Agrios de Nules' activity, the company's entire workforce -which is made up of about 90 workers including colliders, personnel in charge of handling the fruit, and administrative staff- will be laid off.
According to data from the Professional Association of Fruit Exporters of Castellón, Asociex, practically half of the cooperatives and private businesses in the province have disappeared in just two decades, going from 121 to 68 operators. Experts insist that the sector is going through a change of cycle and that this figure will be much lower in the coming years.
Source: elperiodicomediterraneo.com