Complying with a BPA certification (Good Agricultural Practices) and monitoring plantations for certain pests are the requirements that red pitahaya producers (Hylocereus undatus) and yellow (Hylocereus megalanthus) must comply so that the fruit can be exported to China.
Last Wednesday the producers met to analyze these requirements and implement them, says Gabriel Cruz, president of the Pitahaya Producers and Marketing Association of the Palora canton, in Morona Santiago.
This after learning that the Ecuadorian pitahaya will have a new market, that of China, due to the signing of the export protocol for the fruit, announced a few days ago by Julio José Prado, Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries.
Ecuador exported 17,895 tons of pitahaya in 2021, 60% more than in 2020
The signing of the protocol took place during the activities that were developed for the visit of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, to his counterpart Xi Jinping.
Cruz indicates that they will first establish themselves as a federation and then proceed with the BPA certified.
“We are forming a provincial pitahaya federation to reach out with more force. The agreement is already signed, but we must comply with the requests. Agrocalidad (Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control Agency) is asking the entire sector to have BPA certification and carry out pest monitoring”, he comments.
In Palora, according to Cruz, there are 1,500 producers and at the moment there are a little more than 70 with certification. They must monitor the existence or not of the following pests: Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann), Lopholeucaspis cockerelli (Grandpr & Charmoy), Dysmicoccus neobrevipes Beardsley, and Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley.
According to the document that the authorities delivered to the producers, China clarified that pest-free production sites are not established on the basis of a single farm but rather on multiple farms within an area. Cruz affirms that they will also start with that procedure.
The province of Morona-Santiago concentrates 65% of the registered production sites of the fruit.
Overproduction afflicts the pitahaya sector, which asks the Government for a law to regulate the activity
In 2021, the country exported 17,895 tons of pitahaya, 60% more than in 2020 when 11,260 tons were shipped.
The fruit is shipped to 27 countries. The United States is the largest destination market, with just over 84%, followed by Colombia and Singapore with 5.4% and 2.7%, respectively.
Cruz wants this procedure to be carried out as soon as possible to export the fruit to China and calculates that the figure already exported to other countries would triple.
Meanwhile, the president of the Pitahaya Producers and Marketing Association in Palora considers setting prices important for the sector.
“We want the minimum support cost to be regulated and established to avoid deepening the losses caused by COVID-19 and the drop in product prices from unfair and speculative intermediation in the export sector,” he points out.
However, a few days ago, Minister Prado also pointed out that “the correct path is to open markets, not to set prices in a sector with a very high potential for growth and export.” (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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