In its filing, EuroFresh noted it has been difficult to find enough workers, particularly at its remote Wilcox facility, given crackdowns on illegal immigration that have resulted in much greater demand for the smaller pool of legal immigrant workers in the area.
EuroFresh reportedly also blames its predicament on "escalating losses" from decreased tomato production due to an outbreak of tomato chlorotic dwarf viroid, known as viroid. Issues related to viroid reportedly led to a loss of 6.3 million pounds of fruit and $6.2 million in revenue in 2007, followed by a loss of 24.5 million pounds of fruit and $26.2 million in revenue last year.
In the filing, the company listed assets of between $50 million and $100 million, and debts of between $100 million and $500 million. Sales in 2008 were $177.1 million, according to the court filing.
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