Via Frutta has become the latest casualty in the crisis affecting Argentina’s topfruit industry. According to a report in RioNegro.com.ar the Río Negro-based topfruit grower-exporter filed for debt restructuring last week after falling millions of dollars into the red.
The company is one of the country’s top ten apple and pear exporters with an annual turnover of around US$10m and sales of some 40,000 tonnes.
The Argentine topfruit industry has suffered a significant loss in its competitiveness due to rising production costs, low prices on international markets, falling exchange rate, labour issues and poor weather. Earlier this year Brazil suspended imports of Argentine apples and pears following the discovery of codling moth in a number of shipments, closing off one of the industry’s most important markets.
Figures from the ministry of agriculture show that exports of apples and pears from the Río Negro Valley fell by 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the year-earlier period.
