Argentina: The production and export of blueberries declines

The blueberry season ends with lower results than expected, and increasingly far from the best levels that the fruit had reached.

At the beginning of last year, official statistics showed that the total production of blueberries had reached 18.000 tons: of that volume, almost 11.000 tons of fresh fruit were exported.

The comparison with the harvest and export that has just ended reflects a reduction: the preliminary calculation shows that exports reached 8.000 tons, with a smaller area.

This implies a notable reduction in a product that in the early years of the 20.000th century –when it began to grow significantly in the Federation and Concordia fields of Entre Ríos–, exported up to XNUMX tons.

From the sector, it points to the high operating and tax costs, in some cases dollarized, the high inflation and the lack of policies for the sector. What happened has similarities with the citrus industry, although unlike it, citrus is mostly destined for domestic markets.

According to the president of the Association of Blueberry Producers of Mesopotamia (APAMA) Alejandro Pannunzio, the restrictions due to specific policies, which reduce global competitiveness, had a high impact on the level of activity in the sector.

The fruit is in high global demand. In fact, Peru, which had started its production long after Argentina, is constantly on the rise.

"The lack of competitiveness collides with the good times that other exporting countries in the region, such as Chile and Peru, are experiencing," said the businessman, who send 140 and 200 million kilos to the market annually, respectively.

According to Apama, the distribution of exports has maintained the markets of the United States (65%) of the total; Canada, European Union, United Kingdom, and Asia.

As for a market with great demand like China, Argentine fruit cannot access, due to the 15% tariff that the country must pay, while countries like Peru and Chile have zero.

In addition, Panuzzio made reference to the difficulty in the logistics for the export.

The production that is usually done by plane, because it is a perishable fruit. “There were shipments that we could not do due to lack of space on the planes, because due to the pandemic there are fewer flights. And in maritime shipments there were delays that in some cases meant losses for producers. Due to the lower commercial flow of Argentina compared to other countries, there are fewer containers available,” he said.

The referent pointed out that the fruit of Mesopotamia “comes from Chile” and described the journey: “Instead of traveling 400 kilometers from Concordia and loading at the Port of Buenos Aires, we have to go to Santa Fe, then to Río Cuarto, Mendoza , cross the mountain range and reach Chile, only to board a boat there”.

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