Plantain producers from Rivas have good expectations for next summer. If the winter rains continue, they say, there won't be a shortage of plantain, a very coveted product in the diet of Nicaraguans, next summer. This coincides with the sharp increase in production expected by the Government, according to official reports.
Aquiles Sanchez, president of the Association of Plantain producers from Rivas (Aplari), said that the current rains had rekindled the hopes of the producers of plantain in the department of Rivas.
According to the president of Aplari, the department has ten thousand acres of land devoted to this crop (five thousand acres on the island of Ometepe and five thousand in the other municipalities of Rivas). These crops have different harvest times.
"The few producers who had irrigated crops have been able to start their harvest because of these rains so their production will be ready for August and September. Other crops will be ready in October and November, but the biggest harvest will be between February and May next year, when the harvest of the crops that have just been renewed starts," said Sanchez.
Raul Rivera, a small producer of plantains in Buenos Aires, said they were having a good winter and that musacea crops were having no problems to develop. As a result, he said, there will be a good harvest in next year's summer.
The drought affected production
Rivas traditionally supplies plantains to the domestic market, and Central American countries like Costa Rica, Honduras, and El Salvador; however, due to the prevailing drought in recent years, exports declined.
Rodolfo Ampie, a producer of plantain in the municipality of San Jorge, said he had stopped exporting plantain to Costa Rica a year ago, and that only one producer and one collection center had managed to continue exporting to the neighboring country.
Plantain production in Rivas' mainland is used to supply the domestic markets and some Central American countries, whose buyers visit the farms to transport the product themselves, stated the producers.
Buyers from Honduras and El Salvador prefer the plantain from the island of Ometepe, especially the one produced in the area of the Maderas volcano. Said buyers cross to the island on ferries with their trucks to bring the island's plantain to their countries .
Source: laprensa.com.ni