According to the planting intentions revealed by experts from the Directorate of Agricultural Statistics (DIEA), horticultural production in the northern part of the country will increase in 2014. Protected crops will increase by 8% when compared to 2013, while in the field crops will increase by 22%.
Horticultural production in the north of the country, which has been increasing in recent years and provides products to the domestic market complementing the southern production, amounts to a quarter of the country's total production. The amount of producers in the north is also a quarter of the nation's total.
According to the planting intentions revealed by the North Coast Horticultural Survey 2014, conducted by DIEA last August, the area of protected crops in 2014 was estimated at 472 hectares. At the time of publication, 86% of the total (406 hectares), had already been planted.
The five main crops are of tomatoes, with 155 hectares, pimento (125), strawberry (50), zucchini (35) and eggplant (13).
If the planting intentions of protected crops for 2014 are achieved, it would be 8% higher than the previous harvest. According to the DIEA, the increase is explained by the increase in areas of pimento, strawberry and minor crops such as cucumber, string beans and melon.
Conversely, there would be a decrease in the area of tomato, "probably associated to the previous harvest, when a record production had a negative impact on prices."
Field crops
Regarding the intention of planting horticultural crops in the field, the DIEA estimated 2,697 acres were going to be planted, 54% of which were already in place at the time of the survey. If completed, the area of field crops would increase by 22% when compared to 2013.
The planting intention for sweet potato, which is the main crop in the field, is of 796 hectares; a strong increase from the 580 hectares of the previous harvest. One explanation for this increase is the "low harvest in the south of the country, a fact that, according to the DIEA, may have encouraged the expectations of the producers in the north."
The sweet potato is followed by carrots, with an estimated area of 456 hectares, 5% more than in 2013, and the onion, with 447 hectares. The surface of onion crops decreased but, since 12% of the previous harvest was lost to hail, the 2014 harvest may end up being the same as the one from the previous year.
Numbers
According to the survey, the total horticultural production of protected crops in the north during the 2013 harvest amounted to 43,954 tons.
Meanwhile, the total horticultural production of in the field crops during the 2013 harvest amounted to 31,930 tons.
Source: elobservador.com.uy