CONPAPA hasn't allowed the market opening sought by potato producers from the US because they haven't met some of the plant health requirements stipulated by the law regarding potato imports. According to federal authorities in Mexico, 43 diseases of quarantine importance, have been detected in the US.
Negative
In that sense, the president of the National Confederation of Potato Producers of Mexico (CONPAPA), Gerardo Garcia Menaut, said there were no commercial reasons to ban the entry of potato imports from the United States, but that they hadn't allowed them as a preventative measure to safeguard the integrity of Mexican crops and Mexican producers.
"The opening sought to import potatoes was not issued because American producers did not comply with the plant health requirements established to import potatoes," said the president of Conpapa. He also warned of the risk that ignoring these preventative measures, established by law, posed, even though the the entry of this product is permitted at the border areas of the country.
Risk
The federal agency conducted an analysis to determine the risk that importing the potatoes to Mexico, without complying with plant health requirements, would have and detected 43 quarantine diseases that Mexico doesn't have.
This products can be marketed in the border areas of Mexico as these areas don't have crops that could be affected by these imports. "We allow the entry of commercial potatoes to the border area because there are no potato crops there. The potato that comes with pests or diseases stays there and does not spread to other crops," Garcia Menaut said.
He also clarified that they were only denying the entry of fresh potatoes, processed potatoes, or semi-processed potatoes, which means the country allows imports of fried potatoes, potato chips, and frozen potatoes. More than 350 thousand tons of processed potatoes enter the country every year and there are no restrictions for these imports.
"All the semi-processed product that does not involve a phytosanitary risk to Mexico can enter freely and be marketed," said the president of Conpapa, who also stated that potato production would be good this year and that marketing largely depended on each producer.
Source: debate.com.mx