Posts tagged economy

Italian Jobs: As Italy’s unemployment level rises and consumers reduce their spending, it’s becoming harder and harder for the country’s retailers to keep shoppers spending. This month, Eurofruit talks to Germano Fabiani, head of fresh produce sourcing at Italy’s biggest grocery retailer Coop Italia, about the changing commercial landscape and the potential road ahead.

Italian Jobs: As Italy’s unemployment level rises and consumers reduce their spending, it’s becoming harder and harder for the country’s retailers to keep shoppers spending. This month, Eurofruit talks to Germano Fabiani, head of fresh produce sourcing at Italy’s biggest grocery retailer Coop Italia, about the changing commercial landscape and the potential road ahead.

French Fiasco: An absence of product shipped to Europe by troubled Israeli exporter Agrexco is causing a stir at the Port of Sète in France, where earlier this year a €24.5m handling facility was completed especially with the company’s European programme in mind. (Video in French.)

dailymotion.com

Agrexco (Worldwide) has failed to meet its payments today and all credit has been removed. They are now being managed by the banks around the world with a view to selling the business in parts or as a whole within fourteen days or they will be forced into receivership.
Quote from an anonymous source received by Eurofruit on Wednesday, 6 July 2011. Eurofruit is now attempting to establish whether or not this is indeed the case.

Newsnight pundits offer little hope for eurozone

  • Will Hutton of the Observer, US economist Irwin Stelzer and Gillian Tett of the FT spoke on the BBC's Newsnight programme last night about the financial crisis unfolding in Ireland…
  • Tett: "Whether it survives with all its members intact is a pretty open question."
  • Stelzer: "I think you're going to get a euro north and a euro south, so that the troubled periphery countries can essentially devalue and then come back in ... " For these purposes, he said, Ireland belonged in the "euro south" or "euro periphery" group.
  • Hutton: "If the euro breaks up that will be one of the triggers of a wider crisis ... The augers don't look good."

Guardian

The euro is worth less in US dollar terms than it was yesterday, which, according to www.zerohedge.com, implies the market believes the Irish bailout has failed.

The euro is worth less in US dollar terms than it was yesterday, which, according to www.zerohedge.com, implies the market believes the Irish bailout has failed.

zerohedge.com

Reinforcing our financial position in Argentina is part of our strategic plan. This strategic plan recognises the importance of Expofrut Argentina as a leading exporter of fresh produce.
Tom Paemeleire, chief operating officer of Univeg’s fruit and vegetable division, explains the group’s decision to pump an extra US$15m into Argentinean subsidiary Expofrut, which reportedly incurred losses of almost 115m pesos (US$29.7m) last season.

fruitnet.com

Sadly, some of them are just too weak to carry on, and there will be a big spike of failures in the New Year. On the flipside, their demise will bring a welcome reduction in competitive pressure for those left.
David Pattison of industry analyst Plimsoll comments on a new study which suggests some 257 fresh produce companies in the UK are running out of time to turn things around financially.

fruitnet.com

Growers down here are pretty despondent and some have already grafted over their Jazz trees to other varieties including Fuji and Pink Lady. We can’t go on losing money year after year.
New Zealand apple grower Paul Thomas voices his concern about the potential profitability of trademarked variety Jazz.

fruitnet.com

So does this mean the UK and Ireland's discount boom is over?

Our October 2010 front cover confirms what many in the fresh produce industry feared: that the European banana trade, in so many ways a driver of the entire fruit business, is seeing its value and profitability diminished by price wars and an increase in supply of product on what remains a stagnant market.

Our October 2010 front cover confirms what many in the fresh produce industry feared: that the European banana trade, in so many ways a driver of the entire fruit business, is seeing its value and profitability diminished by price wars and an increase in supply of product on what remains a stagnant market.