The President of the Banana Product System Council in the state of Veracruz, Sergio Eduardo Graillet Contreras, stated that it was a harsh economic blow for banana producers to have to invest all their profits to combat the pests affecting their plantations because it made their activity unaffordable.
He said that producing bananas was not affordable, "40 percent of the profits are used to cover banana cultivation costs, i.e. on agrochemicals, fertilizers, yarn, bags, wages and cultural work, the other 60 percent of the profits is used to control the black sigatoka and to purchase fungicides and oils."
According to Graillet Contreras, producers can't always buy pesticides with what they are being paid for their bananas. Additionally, input prices have increased because of the rising dollar.
Currently banana producers in the country are alarmed by a new plague coming from Central America, which is called the Panama disease, he said. The country is taking phytosanitary measures so that the disease won't affect its banana crops.
He said the Panama disease had been ravaging crops throughout all of Central America, and other nearby places, such as Costa Rica and Ecuador, affecting them economically, and that they didn't want that to happen in Mexico.
He mentioned that the state of Veracruz was also taking the necessary measures to ensure that the banana moko disease, a disease affecting two states in the country (Chiapas and Tabasco), doesn't affect the state.
He said that the new health reform that would enter into force in a few days would help keep out pests from other producing states, and that they were inspecting banana shipments to make sure they don't contain any vegetation.
Regarding the restructuring of the local board of the banana product system he confirmed that, "the Local Board of the Banana Product System, of the Rural Development System 003, was restructured a month and a half ago, right now the one being restructured is the Totonocapan's Citric Cafe Local Board of Plant Health, as it is about to expire," he said.
Source: diarioelmartinense.com.mx