Local leaders of the Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA) met with officials and technicians of the national Agribusiness and Social Development ministries to discuss the sale of bananas from Formosa at a price that would be beneficial for producers and that would give predictability to marketing. The meeting lasted almost four hours, and the parties were committed to solving the administrative issues pending to achieve their goal.
The meeting took place in the offices of the Directorate of Family Farming and Regional Economies, which is coordinated by Julio Curras. The official representation was headed by Curras and Guillermo Gianassi, one of the area's advisors; the marketing director of the Ministry of Agribusiness, Daniel Corral; and Juan Luis Diaz, of the Subsecretariat of Popular Economy of the Ministry of Social Development of the Nation. The delegation from Formosa was integrated by the regional director of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, Panfilo Ayala; the president of the Laguna Naineck subsidiary from the federated entity, Eliodoro Lezcano; and Carlos Canton, a member of the executive committee of the same organization.
"We worked on a defined agenda that had been agreed with the Ministry of Agribusiness, after a management approach by Senator Luis Naidenoff," said Ayala. "What we did, basically, was to support the quality of the bananas produced in our land and we defended the strong commitment that we have given in recent years to quality, compliance with sanitary requirements, and the packaging required in the big markets," he said.
Among the best in the world
"Now, the banana from Formosa is among the best in the world, better than the bananas from Ecuador, Paraguay, or Bolivia, and even better than the bananas from the Canary Islands, which are among the most demanded," he added.
"The lack of official support for the last part of the process was always the big problem. Only now, it seems, there is a possibility to market it at the levels required by social demand and at a price that is profitable for banana producers, on the one hand, but that can also help the State to meet its institutional and political obligations," Canton said.
"We have lost valuable time in recent years, but now the doors seem to be opening for our banana production and for the small producers who have always relied on the banana to support their families," Ayala said.
Source: diariopinion.com.ar