Producers of rambutan from Soconusco are concerned, as marketing prices at the start of the harvest season have plummeted by more than 50 percent in the domestic and international markets, which directly affects the economy of the families working this product.
The president of the Agricultural Producers Association of this region, Alfredo Lopez Garcia, stated that this collapse in prices was due to the roadblocks, which made it difficult it to mobilize the product to the center of the state, the country, or to the United States. As a result, the few buyers who dare purchasing rambutan pay very low prices.
He said that, at the start of production, prices in the domestic market oscillated between 15 and 20 pesos and export prices were between 30 and 35 pesos, but that as a result of the roadblocks caused by the teachers' strike domestic prices had fallen to 10 pesos and export prices to 15; something that directly affected the economy of farming families.
As a result of the roadblocks, he said, many producers have stopped harvesting the fruit, "because the buyers can't transport the containers and those who dare buy fruit have to use longer alternate roads, which increases costs and therefore pay less per kilogram of product."
Thus, he said, producers had stopped hiring workers to harvest the fruit to reduce marketing costs, which in turn also affects the economy of thousands of families.
"We make a call to federal authorities so that they can reach an agreement soon and end this situation that strongly affects the agricultural sector; we ask them to unblock the roads so that we can export our product, because this thousands of families in this region depend on this activity," he added.
Finally, the representative of the producers said that this year's harvest of rambutan in Soconusco would decrease by nearly 40 percent, "this is because this culture is cyclical, i.e. the plantation's performance decreases every certain period."
Source: El Heraldo de Chiapas