The Pacific Alliance Summit could help internationalize and increase the export level of three agricultural products from the Valle del Cauca: pineapple, Hass avocados, and citrus fruits, such as the Tahiti lime.
According to the department's Secretary of Agriculture, Maria Milena Banguero, these three products are strong in the Valle del Cauca and they could guarantee the department's economic development.
"These three products could be taken as tropical fruits to different markets, such as Chile and Mexico. We have export volumes which could make us more competitive; the agricultural development of countries like Ecuador and Peru was achieved with people from the Valle del Cauca," Banguero said.
"We want to take our products and institutional supply for the exchange of technologies, so that we improve our agricultural products and help increase the export quality of other Latin American countries," she added.
According to data from the National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE, Colombia produces more than 275,000 tons of avocados per year and the Valle del Cauca is the country's second producer of Hass avocados, only surpassed by Tolima.
Opportunity for pineapple
"Today, we have an over-supply of pineapples in municipalities like Dagua and Restrepo. We believe that we are at full capacity to export several containers weekly to countries like Chile. Colombia imports many products, such as apples and pears, from Chile and we don't want to return the containers that fruit comes in empty. We want to use them to send fruits from our region to that country," Banguero said.
According to the president of the Association of Farmers and Ranchers from the Valle, the department is ready to export high volumes of pineapple in the seasons that countries like Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Honduras require them the most.
Francisco Lourido said that "ideally, the department should have 20 or 30 thousand hectares of pineapples. We could have the same amount of hectares for avocado and papaya, as all these products do very well in the region. We have the technology, and we could even promote it and bring more international advisers to promote greater economic development throughout this region."
According to data from the SAG and the Ministry of Agriculture, pineapple exports decrease from June to September because of climatic conditions, and that is the moment that Colombia and the Valle could enter the market strongly.
This twelfth Pacific Alliance Summit will be the opportunity for the entire agricultural sector of the Valle and the south-west of the country to position themselves in Latin America with strategic and productive alliances that allow the expansion of the market and the volume of exports.
Finally, the Secretary of Agriculture stated that the Valle del Cauca is prepared to export much more. "I believe we have the capacity to return 30 or 40 containers filled with our goods. They should arrive and leave the country full," Banguero said.
Source: elpais.com.co