Manuel de Jesús Meraz Villaseñor, director of Rural Development of the City of Canatlan, stated that the apple production annually harvested in the municipality of Canatlan was primarily marketed in the country, in the markets in Mexico City, most notably that of Iztapalapa, and that it was also distributed to the states of Nayarit, Jalisco and Sinaloa.
He also said that, for now, the apple of this region could not be sold abroad, particularly to the United States, due to phytosanitary issues.
Prohibition
"It has import restrictions. We can't export apples unless they are processed, and that's something we have to start working on," said the city official.
Varieties
Meraz Villaseñor said that starting July 20 producers would start collecting the fruit in some apple orchards located in the city, a process that would mark the beginning of the harvest of the Red Top variety, and then would continue with the New Water variety and the Red Delicious variety.
The harvest of the latter varieties, stated the director of Rural Development, begins in the first fortnight of August each year, and a significant portion of them are sold in the same municipality, while another significant amount is distributed in other parts of the state of Durango.
Forecasts
It's worth noting that, according to recent preliminary projections, this year's harvest could amount to nearly a million boxes of different apple varieties, over 10 percent more than in the previous year, when production reached 900,000 boxes.
Positive factors
This year, the increase of production is attributed to the care producers took when growing their gardens, especially when the fire blight pest attacked them. Another factor that benefited production was the weather, as there were rains almost throughout the whole year, said Meraz Villaseñor.
Up to 3,800 hectares
Around 3,800 hectares are currently devoted to apple production in the municipality of Canatlan. Some years ago, there were some 8,000 hectares devoted to this crop in the area. However, the director of Rural Development said, this year's harvest will be very acceptable.
"The new plantations have a high density, i.e. a higher number of trees per hectare. The surface area may have decreased, but the new forms of production enable us to maintain levels of apple, and eventually they will start to increase," he said.
For example, he said, a few years ago the orchards had an average of 280 trees per hectare, today this number has significantly increased to 600 trees per hectare.
He also stated that he was unaware of the number of hectares with trees in decline, but that it was important that this surface had been used for other crops.
Source: elsiglodedurango.com.mx