The Secretary for Economic Development of the Atlantico, Anatolio Santos Olaya, said during the second Mango Departmental Committee, which brings together producers, government, academia and the private sector, that the Department of Atlantico would have 3,000 new hectares of that fruit for export planted in 2019.
Santo Olaya said that the Atlantico currently had 1,700 hectares of mango certified by the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA), and that much of their production was being exported to international markets.
"Our Department has lands that are suitable for the production of this fruit and we have three processing plants to transform it into pulp and take it to the national and international markets," Santos Olaya said.
He added that the committee had been working to promote the processing of the fruit, as it is was more profitable and was demanded by the international markets.
"We have promoted the productive transformation project of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and the Ministry of Agriculture. We have told small producers about the importance of partnership for the success of these projects that will lead to greater Income and improve their quality of life," the official stated.
He said that the mango processing plants were located in the Free Zone, Ponedera, and Luruaco, which have all the sanitary and quality conditions to work the fruit.
"At the moment the plant at the Free Zone is exporting fruit pulp to markets in 15 countries and the one from Ponedera is exporting it to Europe, mainly to the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, so we need to increase production," he said.
He said that the plant at Luruaco aimed at supplying all local and national demand.
"It is a very well structured plan that will benefit the municipalities of the east and south of the Atlantic (Sabanagrande, Santo Tomas, Palmar de Varela, Ponedera, and Luruaco). In addition, we have the necessary conditions, such as a good road infrastructure, that allows us to have close connections with the ports," he said.
Source: El Universal