Río Negro Province: Encyclopedia II - Río Negro Province - Economy

Río Negro Province - Economy

The economy of the province is concentrated in the agriculture at the fertile valleys of the Río Negro River, specially at the Alto Valle but also at the Valle Medio. The province produces almost 70% of the apples and pears of the country, most it for exportation with 38% of it as fresh fruit and 40% as juice concentrate, through the port of San Antonio Oeste.

In the Valle Medio, besides apples and pears, tomatoes (specially around Lamarque), onions and other fresh vegetables are produced for local and national consumption.

The crops around the city of El Bolsón are mainly berries, and hops with 70% of the national production.

Outside the most fertile valleys used for agriculture cattle (specially on the North), goats (on the South) and sheep are raised. 13% of the national sheep meat and wool production comes from the Río Negro Province.

There's a relative small petroleum extraction area around the town of Catriel near General Roca, but it cannot be compared with those in other provinces such as Santa Cruz and Neuquén. Most of what is extracted is taken non-processed to plants in the Buenos Aires Province. There is also some mining activity for diatomite, gypsum, salt and others.

Industrial fishing takes place in the Atlantic Ocean waters of the San Matías Golf with an annual recollection of 11,000 tons of fishes, and 8,000 of seafood. Hake, squid, and shellfishs are the most common capture, most of which are frozen and exported.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Economy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki