Argentina imported canned peach from China even though there is no peach shortage

Last year´s Argentine peach harvest was not good because intense frosts caused significant production losses, but for this year, producers expect to collect 120K tones, which is equivalent to approximately 72% more than 2019.

In this context and shortly before starting the harvesting work, the producers of Mendoza (where production is concentrated) learned that some companies (distributors/supermarkets) had imported 40K cans of peach halves from China, according to the data from Argentine Customs.

In addition, it is presumed that the final figure could be of the order of 200K. The reason for this, it is believed, is that companies can bring food from abroad at very competitive values, thanks to access to the foreign exchange market at the official exchange rate for imports even with paying a 35% extra-zone tariff.