Despite being the main Canarian crop in terms of production (around 370,000 tonnes last year) and the most exported, the acreage has been reducing in recent years because growers are facing a series of issues: the competition with bananas from other origins, the escalating costs and the need to find a share in an increasingly difficult market, but researchers have come up with a solution. The technicians who have developed it estimate that between 15 and 20% of the producers are considering the implantation of organic production methods which have been tested in a handful of plantations, aimed at increasing the growers' income and ensure the sustainability of the activity.
Very few plantation owners have switched to organic production; it is a ridiculous percentage, according to the technician of the Coplaca group of cooperatives, Javier Cepero, who explains that organic production does not in itself guarantee greater profits. On the contrary, there is a very limited market in the Peninsula (main destination for Canarian bananas) and a very small one in Germany which is not very attractive due to the low prices of this same product imported from South America.
Costs are a problem given the reality of bananas from other origins being cheaper, so another objective is to reduce them. Water consumption has already decreased, as well as the use of fertilizers, which in La Palma's case has experienced a 50% reduction.
Another line of research focuses on the recycling of packaging residues and the use of cow and pig manure to reduce the activity's environmental impact.
But Cepero warns that 80% of the plantation owners are in their 60's and are more reluctant to change than the younger ones.
Biomusa was born in response to the issues raised by Canarian growers: white flies, red palm weevils and composting. The ICIA took good note of the problems and opened several lines of research which ended up merging a few years later.
It is a capital issue, because even if chemicals are preferred, there is a problem: 50% of those products have been banned by the EU in the past four years, and laboratories are not looking for substitutes because bananas are a smaller and less profitable market, warns Cepero.
Source: Eldia.es