The mango and grapefruit export season is at risk because the Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified more than 190 lots of mango affected by larva that were sent in Tierra Caliente packaging during the 2015 export period, which began in February and concluded in June. On Tuesday, producers and politicians of the region were told about this situation at a meeting held in New Italy.
However, mango producers from Apatzingan, Buenavista, and Paracuaro, the second municipality in the region with the highest mango production, were not present at that meeting. At the meeting, the representatives of the State Committee on Plant Health reported about the notice issued by the USDA, which spoke about the 192 batches of fruit with larvae detected and of the possible restrictions to this fruit during the coming season, which could also impact other products, such as grapefruit, of which the country exports more than 13,000 tons annually to Canada and Europe.
Additionally, Plant Health made it clear to those attending the meeting that they currently do not have the necessary 1,150,000 pesos required to eradicate the pest from registered and host plantations.
If the United States closes its doors to the region's mango, producers would stop perceiving about 300 million pesos for the export of over 57,000 tons of mango and 39 million pesos from the sale of 13,000 tons of grapefruit.
Since producers can't be asked to give more money than what they already do, the government must take responsibility for solving this problem that requires urgent attention. In view of this, Local Deputy, Raymundo Arreola, promised he would manage these resources and that he would have an answer to this situation next week in a meeting to be convened.
Source: cambiodemichoacan.com.mx