Russia's largest fruit importer JFC Group filed for a supervision order on Tuesday, Feb. 21, claiming the Arab Spring and instability in global markets have undermined its business.

JFC Group chief executive officer Andrey Afanasiev, said that 2011 was a tough year for the company.

"Due to operational losses JFC currently shows some symptoms of temporary insolvency. Our address to the court follows the demands of the law and our wish to continue operations as well as to protect the creditors."

In a company satement JFC said that 30% of its sales were in the southern Mediterranean where it had faced disruption of business relations, loss of markets and bad debts.

Afanasiev added that the group's creditors understood the company's difficulties and were ready to reach a compromise over debt repayments.

"JFC has sufficient resources to continue operations and plans to remain the leader of the Russian market,” he said.

The group's net profits between January and June 2011 went down 6.6 times year-on-year to reach 45.54 million rubles (US$1.5 million), the proceeds shrank by 10.7% to make up 5.61 billion rubles (US$189 million).

Established in St. Petersburg in 1994, the JFC Group comprises fruit production, procurement, storage, transportation and sales companies.

It owns about 3,000 hectares of banana plantations in Ecuador and Costa Rica and employs 3,600 people.

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