This year's mandarin production is so big that the trees are packed with large and delicious fruits.
"It's one of the best harvests of recent times," said Isidro Zambrano, a 36-year-old farmer who puts the fruits into boxes of 150 units.
The producer said that everybody in this area made a living from the harvest of this fruit.
He also added that each inhabitant had one to five hectares of this fruit, and that when the small producers finished selling their production they would go to work on the larger estates as collectors or porters. Men and women receive $15 dollars a day for these jobs.
Price
Zambrano said that prices were very low, as up until two weeks ago local merchants paid them $ 1.50 dollars for the 100 fruits. In addition, producers have to take it to the storage centers.
That has changed a bit, thanks to the presence of merchants from Colombia and the Ecuadorian Sierra who arrive in large trucks at the farms to buy the product to export.
These foreign buyers pay producers US $3 $ 3.50 for the product. However, Zambrano said, ideally producers should be paid five dollars for the fruit, as the supply centers sell them for US $10, generating high profits for the middlemen.
Bryan Cedeño, who is in charge of classifying the fruit, said that Colombian buyers are only interested in the big calibers that have a good presentation, which is why there is so much fruit being wasted in the fields of Rio Grande.
Meanwhile, Roberto Cedeño collects the fruits from thorny trees. He also earns $15 dollars and uses his carrier to carry the load.
The owners of the production estates are disapointed with the low price.
Juan Zambrano said that since each harvest requires 3 to 4 workers, who were paid up to 60 dollars per day, producers had to sell 2,000 fruits to recover the money they invested. As a result, they felt it was the same to pick the fruit or leave them to rot in the trees.
"The truth is that we are currently collecting the fruit, not because it is profitable, but because there is so much fruit that we run the risk that their weight might break the trees," he said.
The producers also said that many tourists were currently visiting the area to the see the landscapes and that they bought the fruit by the hundreds.
Source: eldiario.ec