WASHINGTON: Fruit and vegetable exports in the first two months of the year amounted to 169.4 million dollars, a value that is 1.5% lower over the year but a volume that is 6% higher than in the same period of 2015. Fruit production for this cycle is expected to decrease by more than 7%. Meanwhile, imports amounted to 45.8 million dollars, with an annual expansion of 9.3%. This, according to an industry report prepared by the IES Economic Research Sector consulting company, which states that the final harvest volume could decrease even more.
Thus, the harvests of the main fruits (pears, apples, limes, oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit), which represent 85% of the total, would amount to 4.4 million tons and the only major fruit that would grow in 2016 is the lime. “We project that the production of vegetables in the 2015-2016 cycle will amount to 4.19 million tons, i.e. a 0.6% increase over the previous campaign,” the specialists at IES stated.
Alejandro Ovando, the director of IES Consulting, stated that “the prospects of the fruit sector for 2016 remain unfavorable because the normal fruit production volumes will fall drastically due to the low profit margins (in many cases losses) obtained by the primary segment.”
The manager said that “the fall of exports up to February will slowly recover throughout the rest of the year with the start of the export period in April.” In the first two months of 2016, fruit and vegetables exports amounted to US $169.4 million, down 1.5% from 2015, and the country shipped 205,900 tons, 5.9% more than in the previous period.
In the first two months of the year, the main export destination of fresh fruit was Brazil, with 26.9% of the total, followed by the United States (19.9%), and Italy (12%), which relegated Russia to a fourth place position, with 10.8% of the total.
External sales to Brazil fell by 31.7% in the first two months of the year; to the United States 0.7%; and to Russia by 41.8 percent. According to the report, sales of fruits and vegetables in the Central Market of Buenos Aires decreased during the first quarter of 2016. Fruit volumes decreased by 15.9% and vegetable volumes by 1% when compared to 2015.
The turnover in fruits amounted to 1,762.5 million pesos, 37.2% more than what was accomplished up to March last year. Meanwhile, vegetables sales totaled 1,023.6 million pesos, i.e. 9% more than in the same period last year.
