Mexico: Chiapas to export rambutan
He added that exporting products like mango, mangosteen, rambutan and other crops would help logistics and decrease the costs of shipping overseas.
He also said that Chiapas and the Costal area produced rambutan, mango, banana, and mangosteen, so the agreement was important because it would promote high productivity.
Pérez López said producers had to maintain production and, most importantly, improve the productions’ health processes to prevent pests from affecting the production of rambutan.
He noted that they were currently exporting only 500 tons of this exotic fruit and that they had been having trouble exporting this exotic fruit because of the mealybug pest. The American border had been closed because exporters were not complying with the regulations of the U.S. authorities.
The leader of the rambutaneros said that 95% of the rambutan plantations were affected by the mealybug pest, which was like a fungus produced by an ant, that gave the rambutan a welt, and the plant had to be clean to commercialize it.
Perez Lopez said they had to combat the pests in order to maintain the production of 250,000 tons of rambutan registered in 2014, which was mainly sold in Veracruz, Querétaro, Guadalajara.
He said that people were paying between 22 and 27 pesos for the rambutan in states like Veracruz, Querétaro, Guadalajara, Quintana Roo, and that the smuggled rambutan was being sold at 10 pesos or even 7 or 8 pesos.
Finally, he said, they could market the fruit and get a better price if they treated it with an extract of Nim, an organic pesticide without chemicals that controls pests.
Source: Noticias de Chiapas