More than 60 producers of avocado and pineapple have been directly affected by the crisis in Nicaragua, and registered losses that amounted to seven million dollars because they cannot sell their products.
According to Octavio Ambrogi, the general manager of Coopranic (the Cooperative of avocado producers of Nicaragua), their losses are due to the sociopolitical crisis that has affected Nicaragua since April 18.
"We had huge losses. Everything started when the protests began in the country, the trucks could not leave on time, the product could not be evacuated from the farms, which affected our exports to Costa Rica and other Central American countries," he said.
Ambrogi also said they had some 489 hectares devoted to avocado production, which yielded an average of 500 avocados per tree, i.e. about 71,500 avocados per hectare, twice a year.
Avocado producers seek solutions and hope that in the second harvest of this year they can recover what they lost.
Losses in pineapple
Pineapple producers were affected from April to July.
According to Octavio Ambrogi, he planted two hectares with this fruit and lost most of it, which is equivalent to fifteen thousand dollars.
"The harvest was good, but it all rotted because I could not get the product to market. I was able to sell a few of them but in general I had to go out to the streets and give them away for free. I hope that what I have left will allow me to cover costs," he added.
He also said that he had invested fifteen thousand dollars to grow the pineapples, including insecticides and the care of the fruit.
Marthan Arevalo, the president of Coopranic, said that during the rest of the year they would look for alternatives to market the fruit, by giving the product for the national market an added value to avoid millions in losses, in case they were unable to export.
Source: elnuevodiario.ni