Argentina: slight drop in forecasts

According to information released by the Argentinian industry and the WPTC, the planted area for the next crop in Argentina – 6 100 hectares – is finally very similar to last year, when 488 000 tonnes were processed. There was a hail storm in San Juan on 5 December that affected 300 hectares of processing tomatoes (and 150 hectares of vines, squash, chard, garlic and onions), so the total country forecast for this season after this storm has been reduced to 420 000 tonnes.

Argentina has been actively working in recent years to develop its capacity in terms of agricultural production and industrial processing, in order to reduce expenditure on imports and become more independent in the tomato products sector. The authorities have set themselves the objective of encouraging the development of processing tomato cultivation in the region, and hope to see planted surfaces increase to approximately 3 500 hectares.
In this context, the provincial government has launched a call for tender for the construction of a processing plant located near San Juan (see our article dated 23 October). Proposals were due to be examined on 20 December 2017. The authorities hope that if operations are carried out correctly, the plant could be up and functioning by the beginning of 2019, possibly before the end of the harvest season, which generally finishes sometime in April.

Sources: diariodecuyo.com.ar