Argentina’s largest fresh produce group Expofrut has allegedly dismissed more than 534 workers in the country’s Valle Medio, apparently without showing concern for the negative impact on trade and production in the region, according to a report by Agencia Periodística Patagónica (APP).
Legislator Silvia Horne has called on the Argentinean Ministry of Labour to recognise “the numerous cases of dismissal” at Expofrut, and take steps to prevent more layoffs at the company and other fresh fruit grower-exporters in order to “avoid a highly negative impact on the province”.
According to news agency AGF.nl, the redundancies at Expofrut come as a result of losses of almost 115m pesos (US$29.7m) last season.
To reduce its capital AGF.nl said Expofrut has since transferred its Río Negro, Neuquén, San Juan, Buenos Aires and Tucumán-based operations over to Univeg Expofrut.
Ms Horne said Expofrut decided to carry out the mass layoffs without any attempt at dialogue with the affected workers.
“With the sole desire to increase profits, the vineyards and packing facilities located in Chimpay have been eradicated and closed, while layoffs have been threatened in the Allen area,” she explained. “And similar layoff situations are affecting rural workers throughout the production regions of the Valley.”
Ms Horne has expressed concerns about the social situation of the dismissed workers who she claims made possible the generation of wealth at Expofrut. “It is an untenable situation, with serious consequences for production activities and the employment of hundreds of workers,” she said.
According to its website, Expofrut was established in Río Negro in 1971 and has since expanded throughout Argentina, becoming the nation’s largest exporter of fruit and vegetables, mainly topfruit.
In April 2008, European fresh produce giant Univeg acquired all of the shares in Expofrut, which in the process became Univeg's largest Latin American subsidiary, exporting around90 per cent of its production to markets including Europe, North America and the Middle East, as well as newer outlets like Russia, Asia and Latin America itself.
Adolfo Storni, formerly of Argentinean citrus and blueberry exporter San Miguel, moved to Univeg Argentina at the end of 2009 to become its commercial director.
Ms Horne has presented a request for information addressed to the Argentine Secretary of Labour, in which she questions what crisis prevention policies were implemented to avoid the layoffs and asks whether Expofrut applied the procedure provided for crisis prevention under the Law 2401.
The request also asks what steps the country's Ministry of Labour adopted in order to avoid the “mass layoffs” as well as the “serious impact” on the economy of the Valle Medio region.
In particular, Ms Horne has requested details on the efforts made not to close the Chimpay packhouse.
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