The Colombian Fruit and Vegetable Association and The National Fund for Fruit and Vegetables organized the first Pineapple Latin American Congress, which took place in Villavicencio, where they announced the latest news for the production, harvest, post-harvest, marketing and logistics of the fruit.
200 people, including national and international experts in the field, attended the event. Alvaro Ernesto Palacio Peláez, general manager of Asohofrucol, and Santiago Salazar, Secretary of Agricultural Development (e) of Meta, amongst others, attended the event.
One of the Congress' key messages was the importance of partnership amongst producers, in order to improve their competitiveness and productivity in this and other regions.
"The sense of unity must be very clear for us as producers, we must think collectively to expand our market," said Palacio Pelaez, adding that producers will have a better offer if they unite.
In turn, the Secretary of Agricultural Development (e) of Meta stressed that the region has a great potential for pineapple production, taking the data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development into account when explaining that there are 12,955 hectares in production in the country, 350 of which are in the department.
"The most interesting thing in the pineapple sector is that our sown area grew close to 50% between 2012 and 2013, i.e., the pineapple is still one of the preferred crops and that can't be a coincidence, we have a vocation and suitable land for this business. "
The importance of establishing good agricultural practices in the plantations, in order to optimize, competitiveness, was also highlighted during the event. "Improving productivity by conducting research, transferring knowledge and employing good agricultural practices is very important. We've already started doing this here, the GAP must be applied by pineapple producers," said Santiago Salazar.
The academic agenda of the first congress consisted of guests from countries like Canada, Costa Rica and Panama, specialists from Bancóldex, the Food and Agriculture Organization from the United Nations (FAO), representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Icontec and Proexrpot, who presented topics related to the cultivation of pineapple, production costs, agribusiness and logistics.
"If we do not unite as producers, we won't make the effort to generate the minimum confidence we need to develop our country and we won't succeed because we can't expect government policies to solve our individual problems," said Asohofurcol's manager.
Source: Contextoganadero.com