The affair has caused problems for Pavlides,a Greek peach processor, which for a few years has operated a form of joint venture with Alco, after installing machinery in Alcos plant to allow it to process there and ship to the US and other Latin American markets. Pavlides has reportedly had to negotiate with the Argentine banks to protect stock that was its own,and not that of Alco.The quantity of stock involved is unknown: it will almost all be canned.At the time of FOODNEWS going for press, Pavlides was unavailable for comment.
Assuming that Alco processes this season,it will almost certainly have to pay for its raw material on the spot in cash,because Mendozas farmers are unlikely to extend credit.Alco will have to do some sort of negotiation in order to obtain the liquidity it needs,and this will not be easy either,because Argentine banks are as reluctant to lend money as any banks,at the moment.
The next question is whether the banks will allow Alco to trade itself out of trouble (which might take a year or two,and seems likely) or whether they will want to recover their money as quickly as possible.This could be done by selling off any stock, including the new seasons canned and puree production,at very low prices, which would have a potentially disastrous effect on competing businesses, not least because Argentina generally competes on price anyway (at least concerned) and is as far as pur��e is maybe USD100/tonne cheaper than Chilean or South African 30/32 brix product.
If the banks should decide

to take their money and liquidate Alco swiftly, then Pavlides might be tempted to buy it in its entirety (and it will probably be cheap) but would need financing from a bank to do this,and Greek banks are not falling over themselves to lend money at the moment either.Besides,Greece still has a sizeable canned inventory of its own to sell.
��It is like a chess game,with all these pieces on the board,said one FOODNEWS source.
��I am surprised that we have not had a couple of the Greek and Spanish canners go the same way,��said another.We are all in the same boat: the price of sugar and tinplate keeps going up.��
Events in Argentina are being keenly observed by Chile and especially South Africa, which will start running its peaches the week before Christmas, rather than waiting for the New Year,as is usual.This is partly because the peach harvest has started slightly early this year,and partly because the apricot harvest has proven to be disastrous and processing has ended early.Various sources in the country estimate it as being between 35-50% down.This has come as a shock to the country,as originally it had expected a normal crop (FOODNEWS 26 November). South Africa is virtually sold out already,at around USD1 100/tonne fob,and one processor said that he had just received a request from Australia for about 1 400 tonnes of apricot pure,as apparently the harvest there has not been brilliant.Prices will rise,��he predicted.
While the canned peach sector is still dogged by excess stocks, the pure market is much more buoyant.Peach pure has improved,conceded another South African source.We will be running at maximum capacity.A ballpark figure for 30/32 brix product still looks like being around USD1 200/tonne fob.