The Argentinean national agrarian health service, Senasa, has announced a dip in the country’s fruit exports in the first four months of the year to 644,752 tonnes, down from 646,947 tonnes during the same period of 2007.
Despite the decrease in volume, export value rose by 27 percent to US$496.5m during the January-April period, according to Senasa data.
Overall topfruit exports fell by 3 per cent to 469,626 tonnes, worth some US$313.7m – an increase of 18 per cent against the same period last year.
Within the category, apple exports fell by 16 per cent in volumes to 136,067 tonnes and rose by 8 per cent in value to US$92.1m. Meanwhile, pear shipments grew by 3 per cent in volume and 23 per cent in value terms to 333,478 tonnes and US$221.6m respectively.
The bulk of Argentina’s apple exports were shipped to Russia, which received 43,908 tonnes, Algeria (17,592 tonnes), the Netherlands (13,044 tonnes), Brazil (11,278 tonnes), Belgium (8.349 tonnes), Spain (6,230 tonnes) and Sweden (6,036 tonnes).
The lion’s share of the country’s pear crop was also destined for Russia, which accounted for 91,073 tonnes of the total volume, followed by Italy (with 58,313 tonnes), Brazil (52,146 tonnes), the Netherlands (31,043 tonnes), the US (29,876 tonnes) and Belgium (19,765 tonnes), among others.
In the table grape category, overall exports reaches 56,448 tonnes, worth some US$74.7m.
The main export destinations included Russia, with 16,917 tonnes, the Netherlands (14,065 tonnes), Belgium (11,736 tonnes), Brazil (8,025 tonnes), Germany (2,763 tonnes) and Spain (1,581 tonnes), among other markets.
Argentina’s citrus exports, during the first four months rose both in value and volume terms to 84,399 tonnes and US$78.2m respectively, compared with the 67,092 tonnes and US$36.6m recorded during the January-April period of 2007.
Lemons accounted for 49,915 tonnes of the export total, up 43 per cent compared with the same period last year, and worth some US$78.2m – up 114 per cent on 2007.
Russia received the majority of Argentina’s lemon volumes (25,276 tonnes), followed by the Netherlands (5,956 tonnes), Italy (45,636 tonnes), the Ukraine (3,095 tonnes), France (1,897 tonnes), Greece (1,587 tonnes) and Serbia (1,389 tonnes).
Total mandarin export volumes reached 25,008 tonnes during the first four months, according to Senasa, with orange exports at 7,117 tonnes, worth US$17.6m and US$9.95m respectively.
