Farmers give free fruit to inflation-hit Argentines at presidential palace

By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Thousands of Argentines stood in line for free fruit next to the Casa Rosada presidential palace on Tuesday, while growers handed out 10,000 kilos of produce as a way of protesting price distortions and double-digit inflation they say crushes profits. The queues lasted for hours, twisting around the Plaza de Mayo with low-income families eager to get apples and pears from growers who are losing money with each kilo they sell. "There's a problem with the price structure of apples and pears in particular. Growers are losing money and at the same time the average family is paying an exorbitant price at the supermarket," said Raul Robin, spokesman for the Confederation of Medium Sized Businesses of Argentina. It costs growers 4.5 pesos ($0.30) to produce a kilo of apples, but they get paid only 3 pesos per kilo, according to federation data. Meanwhile, supermarket consumers in Buenos Aires pay more than 28 pesos per kilo of apples. "There's a huge mark-up through the commercialization chain, but growers can't even recoup the cost of production," Robin said. The Federation of Fruit Producers from Rio Negro and Neuquen provinces presented the Casa Rosada a letter asking for federal money to help compensate growers for their losses. Growers say there is scant competition among wholesale buyers in the Patagonian fruit provinces of Rio Negro and Neuquen. They say this hurts revenue while their expenses rise with inflation. The government has faced a series of protests in recent weeks as frustration grows over the economy. Mauricio Macri was elected president late last year on a platform of attracting international investment and stimulating growth by ditching the heavy market controls established by the previous government. Macri says he is ridding Latin America's No. 3 economy of distortions caused by the interventionist policies of his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez. The economy is still shrinking though and inflation, while slowing, remains in the double digits. Inflation was expected to be 40.2 percent in 2016, one of the world's highest rates, and 19.4 percent in 2017. Argentine gross domestic product is expected to shrink 1.3 percent in the full-year 2016 before snapping back to 3.2 percent growth in 2017, according to a central bank poll of analysts. (Additional reporting by Eliana Raszewski; editing by Grant McCool)