Colombia: 15% drop in banana production
According to Silverio González, president of Fedeplátano, the most affected areas were the fertile plains in the rivers, were there are mainly small productions and subsistence products. "At least 15,000 hectares were lost, being the basin of Madaglena one of the most affected", he added.
In the end, due to a raise in the relative humidity, created space for a wider incidence of "moko", a disease produced by a bacteria that made damages in the plantations in Llanos Orientales and Quindío.
"It's a "pseudomona" that is lethal and hard to control. Its damages will be more severe, as it's showing up in areas were its presence was small", he added complementing that the "moko" is more lethal than the "sigatoka".
Regarding the price he said that the year ended at $750 per kilo, what is a good thing.
There's no contraband
The direction of Fedeplátano said that there's no contraband from Venezuela.
"Producers from Arauca are very good and they supply a big part of the North-East of Colombia, but due to the bad condition of small roads in the country they need to go into Venezuela and then get into the country again. That's way they say the product comes from Venezuela. In that country the production of banana is seriously damaged and at least 4,000 hectares close to the border don't exist anymore", he explained, adding that banana from Venezuela gets into the country but not on significant amounts.
Source: Vanguardia.com