BUENOS AIRES: This year’s inaugural flight will have 50 tons of blueberries (80% of which are produced in Tucuman), and it will be operated by Tucuman’s Airport with the support of the IDEP (Institute of Productive Development of Tucumán).
“The direct flight, between our province and Miami (United States), will take fruit from Tucuman and Salta,” said Fernando Martorell, IDEP’s coordinator of the Foreign Trade. Expectations are there will be new flights on the weekend.
According to the Argentinean Blueberry Committee, in 2015 fresh blueberry exports from the northwestern region of the country have and estimated volume of approximately 8,000 tons. However, these projections always depend on the prevailing climatic factors in the plantation areas during the harvest months: September, October and November, as the harvest could become difficult if it rains, as has been forecast for this time of the year.
Regarding blueberries exports, public-private articulation has been fruitful in the province. Operative logistics, mainly when preserving and shipping fruit, have been helped by the installation of a cold room at the Benjamin Matienzo Airport. The cold rooms have allowed exporters to collect 150 tons of fruit and to ship them in as many flights as possible within a short period of time. As a result, exporters were able to ship up to 150,000 kilos of fruit per day in the 2014 campaign.
Blueberry exports began in 2007, when three flights carried a total of 120 tons, starting a process that has not stopped growing since. In 2008, there were 15 flights with 600 tons in total; 22 flights and 773 tons in 2009. There were 31 flights with 1478 tons of fruit in 2010. In 2011, there were 59 flights and 2705 tons. In 2012, 71 flights took 3021 tons. In 2013, there were more than 75 flights and a record was set in 2014 when more than 4000 tons were exported in 62 shipments.
Blueberries and jobs
Tucuman’s blueberry harvest and export campaign is an activity that uses large amounts of labor. A couple of days ago different sectors held a meeting to establish formal registration of workers in producing farms and packaging facilities. In 2014, there were more than 15,000 jobs generated by the campaign.
Tucuman has positioned this seasonal fruit in international markets, thus establishing an outstanding business opportunity for local producers.
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