To continue being known as the land of pineapple, the farmers from Ciego de Avila will plant 2,500 hectares between this moment and the end of 2018, to ensure the volumes required for tourism, the industry, the local markets, and to export.
Specialists in this sector have stated that it won't be an easy task, as the province only has about 800 hectares of the Spanish Red and the MD-2 variety, which is only planted in Ciego de Avila and is in great demand in the European nations.
For the past four years, Severo Rio Ramos, a Panamanian consultant, has been imparting his knowledge of these crops to the workers and technicians of the Agroindustrial de Ceballos Company, with positive results.
The consultant teaches the pineapple producers what steps to follow so that they can comply with the requirements for export of the MD-2 variety, such as monitoring every step from washing, conducting a proper selection of fruits according to their size, and how to package them so that they have a maximum quality and reach their destination in excellent condition.
Thanks to his instructions and to the producers hard work, Agroindustrial de Ceballos was able to ship 823 tons of MD-2 pineapples January to Europe between January and June, said Wilver Bringas Fernandez, the director of the company.
He also said their goal was to export 1,200 tons this year, especially to France, Italy, and Spain through Citrico Caribe, a marketer from the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG), and to continue planting this species, as they still don't have a hundred hectares of them.
This crop has a health license issued by the National Institute of Food and it is endorsed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.
Ciego de Avila garnered more than 30,000 tons of pineapple in 1991, but, due to a lack of resources and order in the cultivation, production dropped to 200 tons in 2007. Starting 2008, the crop began to recover, according to specialists from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Source: invasor.cu