The first container with Honduran melons has already arrived at the port of Manzanillo, in the Mexican state of Colima, this weekend, the ambassador of Honduras in Mexico, Alden Rivera, confirmed.
Yesterday, the diplomat visited the customs office of Manzanillo to follow up on the entry of that Honduran product to the market, after complying with all the corresponding phytosanitary requirements.
Honduras is the second country in America, after the United States, to meet the phytosanitary requirements to export melons to Mexico.
Now that Honduras can export its melons to Mexico, the country will be able to take advantage of diversifying this portfolio, improving its income by reducing volumes shipped to markets that are heavily saturated with the supply of other melon producing countries.
In 2019, Honduras plans to export around 200 melon containers, which could generate around 3 million dollars in foreign currency for the country, a number that could be doubled considering the size of the Mexican market.
Mexico is a market of 120 million people, where the melon has a strong demand. According to Ambassador Rivera, the Honduran melon should position quickly in the market thanks to its quality and the logistical facility to export it to Mexico.
According to the current agreements, the export rate is expected to be five containers per week.
According to authorities of Admissibility of the National Service of Health and Agricultural Food Safety (Senasa), this year the country will export more than 15 thousand containers of melons. These exports would amount to some 80 million dollars. The main market for Honduran melons is the United States. According to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG), Honduras exports its melons, which are mainly grown in the communities of Valle and Choluteca in the extreme south of the country, to 47 countries on three continents. According to Senasa, after the incursion into Mexico, the country expects to enter new markets, such as South Korea and Chile.
Source: latribuna.hn