There are already 4,620 Formosana GCTCV-218 banana plants in the country, tolerant to Fusarium race 4

The material, imported by MAG, Agrocalidad and Iniap, arrived from South Africa and will be examined in a closed quarantine.

Ecuador received4,620 plantsin vitroFormosana banana GCTCV-218, a new variety tolerant toFusariumraza 4.

The importation of this variety was carried out through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), the Agency for Regulation and Control of Plant and Animal Health (Agrocalidad) and the National Institute of Agricultural Research (Iniap), after having complied with the legal regulations. in force of the Organic Law of Agricultural Health (LOSA) and the Organic Law of Agrobiodiversity, Seeds and Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture (Loasfas).

Minister Pedro Álavaexplained that the Agrocalidad technical team carried out the documentary verification and phytosanitary inspection of the shipment, to guarantee compliance with the phytosanitary import requirements of the plants.in vitrooriginating from South Africa.

He added that the entire shipment must comply with a time of eight weeks of post-entry quarantine and in case of detection of pests, the material must comply with the established legal procedure.

Meanwhile, Iniap will carry out the validation of the material through the agronomic, adaptability and performance evaluation process, which will be detailed in the materials evaluation service contract issued by Iniap.

If there are positive results on the adaptability of the Formosana variety to the agro-climatic situation of Ecuador, it will serve as support for banana producers in the country, considering that according to reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in 2020, the country has an area of185,000 hectares of bananas in production,detailed the state portfolio.

The pest, which affects musaceae crops and which so far has no cure, has already been detected in Colombia and Peru, but according to local authorities, it is not yet found in Ecuador. It will not declare an emergency in the sector.

Regarding the protests that banana producers staged this Monday morning, closing some roads in Guayas, Los Ríos and El Oro, Álava mentioned that "they have every right to protest, but not to close roads."

Álava indicated that he understands the problems of the producing sector that claims that they are not paid the minimum support price for the fruit.

In response, he assured that they have initiated rigorous audits and have gone to the Interbank System of the Central Bank to detect irregularities in the payment of the official price of the box of bananas by some exporters. He also announced that 36 exporting companies were suspended for not complying with the provisions of the Banana Law regarding exporting four consecutive weeks and that administrative proceedings were initiated against another 40 for failing to pay the minimum support price for the box of bananas. , while it was detected that two companies were carrying out FAS operations without support.

Furthermore, last week the MAG reported that 116 exporting companies have been officiated by the MAG for failing to comply with their tax, employer and/or corporate obligations.

Regarding the marketing problems of the sector due to the fruit that has stopped being sent to Russia and Ukraine, he pointed out that exports to these two countries represent 25% of Ecuador's total banana exports, 22% to Russia and the remaining 3% to Ukraine. He recognized that this problem has caused shipping freight to increase its cost exponentially.

However, he clarified that the banana sector is going through a crisis and not an emergency, this in response to the insistent demands of the producing sector to declare it in emergency.

According to figures from theAssociation of Banana Exporters of Ecuador (AEBE),Both destinations have accumulated a loss of 3.52 million boxes so far in the conflict, this represents that they have stopped exporting on average.813.79 thousand boxes per week to Russia and Ukraine.