The fruit harvest formally began in the maritime terminal of Rio Negro, with the loading of the Triton Reefer merchant ship, a huge ship that will depart to Russia with a cargo full of pears from the Upper Valley.
The activity began on Tuesday, as the ship arrived to the Port on Sunday night. The ship was expected to depart today, but it is likely that its departure will be delayed due to normal loading delays.
Triton will depart with 4,600 pallets of pears, thus inaugurating a season that, according to estimates from the company manager, Cristian Lopez, will be lower than the previous one. "The last 4 or 5 years were not very productive. Last season, things rebounded a little because we incorporating other products, which diversified the port's activity. In fact, apart from fruit, we've been exporting chickens since February. Unfortunately, we'll lose that rebound because export refunds for Patagonian ports were eliminated," said Lopez.
According to the manager, now that this benefit has been eliminated he expects there will be a 10% decrease over the previous season. The season, however, starts with good prospects. "We expect that 40 to 45 merchants will enter the Port," Lopez said.
Moreover, one of the positive data of this harvest is that the port managed to achieve a salary increase agreement with the Sopsao, the union which groups all dockworkers, long before the harvest started . "We were able to agree on the salaries in advance, unlike other years. Joint started negotiations in late 2016 and signed an agreement on January 10," he said. The increase was set at 22%, although they might re-examine said increase if the inflation had an impact on them.
Now that the wage negotiations are settled, the harvest fully started in the port. That productivity won't slow down, as a new ship will enter the port tomorrow afternoon, and port workers will start loading it without pause once the Triton Reefer (from Liberia) departs to Russia.
"We are already working hard. We hope that, within the expected parameters, it will be a good season," Lopez said.
Source: rionegro.com.ar