Fruit drying . --Dried fruit packed in San 

 Rafael is chiefly prunes, with smaller quan- 

 tities of peaches and pears. The heavy pre- 

 ponderance of prunes packed is of the D'Agen 

 variety, dried whole; the balance is pitted 

 Presidents. Peaches are dried both whole and 

 in halves, with the halved form making up 

 most of the volume. Pears are sliced. 



TABLE 19. --Fruit, Canned: Exports by country of 

 destination, 1955-57 



Country of 

 destination 



Belgium 



Brazil ■ 



Finland , 



Germany, West.. 

 Netherlands. . . . 



Norway 



Peru 



Sweden , 



United Kingdom, 

 Other 



Total 



1955 



1,000 



cases^ 



34.7 

 15.0 



.1 

 5.0 



54.8 



1956 



1,000 



cases^ 



14.2 

 26.6 



42.4 



9.7 



6.8 



1.2 



176.9 



10.1 



287.9 



1957 



1,000 



coses* 



0.9 

 8.6 



132.8 



8.7 



.1 



1.0 



6.3 



108.0 



12.7 



279.1 



^ Cases of 24 No. 2-1/2 cans. 



Some dried fruit is exported but as yet this 

 trade has not reached any sizable proportion 

 and most of the product is consumed domes- 

 tically. Production has increased somewhat 

 over the years but apparently just enough to 

 meet domestic requirements and no concerted 

 effort to increase exports has developed. Most 

 attempts along this line, to date, have been 

 concentrated in Brazil and other neighboring 

 countries. 



San Juan 



The second largest grape producing area 

 in Argentina is in San Juan Province, cen- 

 tered around the City of San Juan. While 

 grapes for wine is an important product of 

 the area, a large part of the production is 

 shipped fresh for table use or dried into rai- 

 sins. 



San Juan has an average annual grape pro- 

 duction of about 550, 000 short tons on nearly 

 100,000 acres. Of this amoimt, 495,000 tons 

 from 62, 000 acres are used for wine and 

 about 55,000 tons from about 37,000 acres for 

 table grapes and raisins. The limit of the zone 

 used for grape growing is fairly well estab- 

 lished by the effective limits of the irrigation 

 system. There is little potential for expansion 

 of this area. 



The packing of fresh grapes and drying of 

 raisins is largely a one-plant operation in San 



Juan: the plant of Argentine Fruit Distributors 

 handles 90 percent of the grapes grown for 

 these purposes. This plant buys the grapes 

 from the grower and performs all subsequent 

 operations up to and including shipping. The 

 plant proper includes offices, packing sheds, 

 cold storage warehouse and ice plant, bleach- 

 ing rooms, and drying yards. 



The ice plant produces sufficient ice to re- 

 frigerate all railroad cars used for fresh table 

 grapes, and the cold storage warehouse has 

 space to meet all precooling requirements plus 

 some storage space. Refrigerator cars are 

 available to meet needs, although occasionally 

 it is necessary to hold grapes a day or two 

 while waiting for a car to arrive. Refrigerator 

 cars are reserved for grapes during the ship- 

 ping season. 



Chief varieties grown for export fresh are 

 Almeria, Santa Paula, Ribier, and Datil de 

 Behrut. "Muscatel" and sonne local varieties 

 are packed for domestic markets. 



Most packing of fresh grapes in the San Juan 

 area is done in the vineyard rather than in the 

 packing shed. This is done to eliminate trans- 

 porting them loose in field boxes and damaging 

 them. Pickers are organized in groups of four 

 or five, and move through the vineyard with a 

 portable sorting table. One nnan in each crew 

 packs while the rest pick and clean the bunches, 

 each picker cleaning his own. When packed, the 

 lug is hand carried to a central point where it 

 is lidded. The packed lugs are then stacked on 

 a flat stretcher like carrier and moved by two 

 men to the edge of the vineyard where they are 

 loaded on trucks for transport to the cooling 

 plant. Packages used are standard 28-lb. lugs. 



Varieties of grapes dried into raisins are 

 Sultaninas, similar to Thompson seedless, and 

 a red, seeded variety known as Muscatel. Sul- 

 taninas are packed in three types according to 

 color- -Rubia (Blond), Triguena (Chestnut), and 

 Negra (Dark), the latter natural and the first 

 two bleached. Muscatels are packed in cluster, 

 unbleached, and separated according to size 

 into 5 grades, 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3, with the high 

 n\imber indicating smaller size. 



Grapes are dried on racks in the sun or dur- 

 ing peak harvest season on paper strips laid 

 on the ground. This latter method is used only 

 when the volume of grapes exceeds the capacity 

 of the drying racks. During the drying season, 

 the temperature averages 90° F. , with frequent 

 highs of 105°. Rain is virtually unknown during 

 this season of the year. Birds are scarce in 

 the area and present no problems during the 

 drying period. 



Raisins are bleached with sulfur dioxide in 

 separate concrete rooms in the center of the 

 drying yard, after the grapes have been dried. 

 Sorting by size is done on shaker screen ma- 

 chines, but separation by color is a hand oper- 

 ation, performed whenever workers are not 

 busy in the drying yard or at other tasks in 

 the packinghouse. 



12 



