Argentina: Cranberry producers clarify data to the president

07/03/2017

The Argentine Committee of Blueberries, which concentrates the 80 percent of the product export, made known its vision after the mention made by Mauricio Macri on the competitiveness of the sector. The Head of State highlighted a rise of 58% in sales abroad from Tucumán but for exporters, that increase is not representative.

Macri during the Legislative Assembly had highlighted the production of blueberries in the country but quickly, the producers went out to detail what is the real situation they are going through.

«Argentine blueberries lose ground in export markets due to lack of competitiveness and this greatly harms producers, especially the youngest ones«, indicated the Committee.

In turn, they stated that "the increase of the 58 percent that the exports of blueberries exhibit from the San Miguel de Tucumán airport is not representative of what happens in the sector«.

Carlos Stabile, head of the Argentine Blueberry Committee, said that «our sector needs concrete improvements to gain competitiveness, focusing on labor, production and logistics costs«.

The Committee indicated that although 2016 exhibited record levels of sales abroad with respect to the volume of blueberries, "there were no good economic results, being the worst year product of the low price in the destination markets«.

According to the blueberry producers, it is necessary to review the entire tax and social security policy, promptly «reduce the tax on labor that is much higher than that of other countries and take away our competitiveness«.