ST. PETERSBURG, May 30 - RAPSI. The St. Petersburg and Leningrad Regional Commercial Court has registered six lawsuits filed by JFC to recover a total of $91.2 million.

JFC filed three lawsuits against the JFC National Fruit Corporation. They amount to 2.31 billion rubles ($70.91 million), 307.9 million rubles ($9.45 million) and 60,000 rubles ($1,841).

The court also registered two similar lawsuits against Whilm Management worth 223.8 million rubles ($6.87 million) and 289.2 million rubles ($8.87 million), as well as a lawsuit against Chenet Commerce worth 23 million rubles ($706,000).

In March, the St. Petersburg court launched a bankruptcy procedure against the JFC Group.

Creditors have issued claims worth 15 billion rubles ($460 million) against the company, and whether they will be included in the schedule of creditors' claims is now considered by the court.

Bonansa International submitted in April its own bankruptcy application. Its volume of non-executed financial obligations amounted to 4.26 billion rubles ($130 million) at the time, including 2.23 billion rubles ($68.45 million) in debt to the JFC Group, it said.

JFC allegedly experienced financial difficulties due to global market troubles, possibly attributed to the effects of the Arab Spring, which forced many agricultural produce distributors into bankruptcy.

Earlier, JFC General Director Vladimir Kekhman said he was working on resolving the company's financial problems and would draw up a new business plan in about three months.

Established in St. Petersburg in 1994, the JFC Group comprises fruit production, procurement, storage, distribution and sales companies. It has 3,000 hectares of banana plantations in Ecuador and Costa Rica. JFC runs offices in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other Russian cities, as well as in Cyprus, Ecuador and Costa Rica. It has 3,600 employees. JFC is engaged in fruit sales in Europe, the Middle East and the CIS.