ST.-PETERSBURG, February 24 - RAPSI. A commercial court will hear on March 16 JFC Group's application for own bankruptcy, the Supreme Commercial Court reported on its web site on Friday.

JFC Group is the parent organization of Russia's largest fruit company.

The St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Commercial Court has granted interim relief at the applicant's request.

JFC faced severe financial troubles due to turmoil on international markets when main fruit suppliers went bankrupt due to the events of the Arab Spring among other reasons.

JFC sold up to 30% of its products to the Southern Mediterranean countries and sustained substantial losses in 2011 due to break up of business relations, loss of markets and unrecoverable debts.

Established in St. Petersburg in 1994, the JFC Group comprises fruit production, procurement, storage, transportation and sales companies. It owns about 3,000 hectare banana plantations in Ecuador and Costa-Rica. JFC says it is the largest fruit supplier to the Russian market.