SanCor Cooperative Files for Its Own Bankruptcy

The SanCor dairy cooperative, based in Sunchales and under bankruptcy proceedings since February 2025, yesterday decided to file for its own bankruptcy in court. The company has not yet issued a public statement or responded to inquiries from this medium. SanCor justified its move towards bankruptcy by stating that the preventive reorganization process was no longer a viable tool to overcome the crisis. This was compounded by pressure from creditors and the inability to present a feasible payment proposal. As this medium had reported, according to the Justice system, which verified the debts of 1,519 creditors out of a total of 2,702 reported, the dairy cooperative faces a debt of around US$120 million (US$90 million and over $40 billion pesos). Since 2017, the company was in a process where, instead of righting its situation, it ended up losing market share. Meanwhile, in 2021/2022, there had been a proposal from a group of entrepreneurs to attempt a bailout of the cooperative that never came to fruition. According to the secretary general of Atilra, today the firm “is being sustained with the assets of the workers to whom they owe eight months of salaries plus bonuses, with the material assistance of Atilra from the solidarity fund and the continuity of health services to the workers and their families by OSPIL, even though the company does not make the contributions”. For the union, if the Justice declares bankruptcy, this “does not constitute an end but the beginning of a new stage where the SanCor brand, stripped of the structures that led it to the brink of extinction, must flourish again with the drive of the nobility and quality of the products that the workers affiliated with Atilra produce”. In exchange for dropping the business, Kirchner managed to get Hugo Chávez's Venezuela to grant the cooperative a US$80 million credit, which the company paid for with powdered milk exports. A few years ago, SanCor sold plants and brands such as Las Tres Niñas to Adecoagro, now controlled by crypto giant Tether. Last December, Gelcich, in charge of the firm's proceedings, echoed objections from the Sindicatura about how the administration had been performing and appointed accountant Lucila Inés Prono as co-administrator with broad powers. “After the reports raised by the Sindicatura, the Provisional Control Committee and the co-administrator appointed by the Court, all coinciding in the proven state of cessation of payments, helplessness and definitive general insolvency of the debtor, SanCor CUL has just requested its own bankruptcy,” stated last night in a communication Atilra, signed by Héctor Ponce, secretary general of the union, as soon as the news about the dairy company began to circulate. As mentioned, to date, the presentation referring to the company's request has not been uploaded to the SanCor bankruptcy website, as it was channeled at the last minute, but sources consulted considered it imminent. The dairy company has about 850 employees. The situation of SanCor was not without political ambitions. In 2006, when he had closed an association with Adecoagro, Néstor Kirchner intervened to stop the operation arguing that behind that group, at that time, was the tycoon George Soros. The company's production dropped from processing about 4 million liters of milk daily to less than 500,000 in its productive decline. It also emerged that a call for an assembly to suppliers was made to ratify the actions taken. The dairy union, it is worth recalling, had previously requested bankruptcy with continuity of exploitation. It divested itself of iconic dessert and yogurt brands and reduced its processing establishments by half a dozen.