GRADING AND INSPECTION 



Growers and packers of export fruit are 

 very quality conscious, and grading generally 

 is thorough. The best fruit is packed for ex- 

 port and is restricted to fruit of good color, 

 typical shape for the variety, and a minimum 

 of blemishes or other faults. 



Grades used for apples are Choice, Stand- 

 ard, Special, Good, Common, and Economic, 

 with the first t'wo exportable. Pears are 

 graded Extra Fancy, Choice, and Standard 

 for export; the same grades as for apples are 

 used in domestic markets. The Standard 

 grades are new ones, first allowed during the 

 1957-58 season. In areas such as the Delta 

 and Buenos Aires Province, where most 

 production is designed for domestic sale, 

 sorting and grading is at a minim\im and 

 most offerings are orchard run. 



TA3LZ ^. — Apples and pears: Eicports, excluding shipments to Brazil, peak 

 erport season, by iDonths, 1952-57 



I'lind arid nontli 



Apples : 



January 



February 



Iterch 



Aoril 



Ifey 



June 



July 



August 



September 



October 



Pears: 



January 



February 



Iferch 



April 



SfeJ 



June 



July 



August 



September 



82.3 

 221.9 

 13^.1 

 1«).7 



34.4. 



41.8 

 146.4 

 122.2 

 142.4 



80.5 

 5.9 



37.0 



34.8 



207.1 



107.0 



8.4 



.5 



70.2 

 141.1 

 145.8 



29.8 

 3.3 



178.5 



292.7 



196.4 



109.8 



7.0 



4.6 



.9 



.4 



26.2 



106.9 



32.1 



64.5 



9.4 



3.6 



1.3 



1,000 



boxts 



134.3 



314.5 



227.6 



211.1 



84.8 



6.1 



4.1 



.5 



84.4 

 36.4 

 50.5 



47.5 



49.0 



10.4 



1.2 



.3 



234.5 

 499.8 

 368.0 

 290.7 

 182.6 



4.7 

 26.9 



8.3 



204.3 

 167.3 

 181.7 

 163.0 

 157.8 

 36.9 

 .2 

 2.9 



l.OOO 



boxts 



497.9 



838.6 



528.7 



556.0 



578.2 



44.6 



50.4 



72.9 



36.5 



307.6 



317.3 



285.0 



125.3 



90.6 



48.1 



2.8 



.1 



Gabriel y Cia., Estadistica de la Scportacion de Frutas Prescas. 



Fruit sold on domestic markets generally 

 is sound but has a high degree of surface 

 blemishes and is fruit which cannot meet ex- 

 port grades. Possibly the best fruit obtainable 

 domestically is the occasional lot packed for 

 export but turned back by the inspectors for 

 condition factors slightly in excess of toler- 

 ance. 



Export requirennents are set by law and 

 fruit failing to meet specified grades cannot 

 be exported. In general ternns, the top export 

 grades, according to Argentine Government 

 grading standards, must be packed with fruit 

 of tmifornn size and of one variety only. It 

 must be well-developed fruit, characteristic of 

 the variety, mature, of good color, sound and 

 free of defects. Lower export grades differ 

 from the top grade chiefly in higher tolerances 

 for color and uniformity of fruit. No actual in- 

 spection is made of the packed fruit, other than 

 that done by the packer, until it reaches the 

 port. It is then inspected by Argentine Gov- 

 ernment inspectors to determine its suitability 



for export and to assure that it is of the grade 

 which the packer has stamped on the box. 



PACKING 



Early packing plants for apples and pears 

 established in Argentina some ZO-25 years 

 ago were equipped with rotary bin type grad- 

 ing and packing lines imported from the 

 United States. These machines are in full use 

 today, with packing sheds ranging from one to 

 six separate lines . Packing plants built more 

 recently, including most of the cooperative 

 packing operations, are equipped with identi- 

 cal machinery of Argentine manufacture. 

 These locally built machines operate satis- 

 factorily but require more maintenance than 

 do the American machines, despite the age of 

 the latter. 



Workers hand-sort Sulcanina raisins for color, San Juan. 



Packers pay growers on the basis of pack- 

 out by grades. However, the initial payment 

 is based on estinnates of the crop and a price 

 agreement when the fruit is still on the trees. 

 Payment is nnade in three installments, the 

 first at the time of the agreement and the 

 second about the time the fruit is packed or 

 shortly thereafter. The third installment, ad- 

 justed for packout, is made after final sale 

 and is further adjusted for variation in the 

 actual amount received by the packer-shipper 

 for the fruit. This procedure is normal among 

 both cooperatives and noncooperatives. 



Fruit is generally packed with an extremely 

 high bulge and the lid forced on to help posi- 

 tion the fruit in the box. Naturally this prac- 

 tice leads to a high degree of bruising, and 

 many packers in the area are reducing the 

 size of the bulge, particularly with fruit being 

 packed for export. Boxes are lined with 



