[Economics] How much does Ecuador invest to keep its bananas free of Fusarium Race 4?

[#Steeven.™]

For 5 years, since the first appearance of the pest in the region (in Colombia in 2019), Ecuador has remained free of Foc R4T

Fusarium Race 4 Tropical (Foc R4T) has been present in the region since 2019 when it was detected in Colombia, in 2021 it arrived in Peru and in January of this year Venezuela confirmed the appearance of the pest that affects bananas and other Musaceae. Ecuador has not yet reported the fungus and for that status to continue, close to $115,000 are invested in analytical capacity for the early detection of the pest.

This was revealed by Patricio Almeida, executive director of the Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control Agency (Agrocalidad), during a simulation of action and symposium to prevent the entry of Foc R4T, developed in Ecuador with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The activity was carried out within the framework of the International Day of Plant Health.

Almeida recalled that bananas are one of the country's main export items in which more than 16,000 producers are involved.

“The banana industry provides employment and well-being to the country, Fusarium is already present in neighboring countries; however, to prevent their entry into the country, the Agency strengthens its action programs. Prevention, surveillance and biosecurity to prevent the entry of the pest into the country. Nearly $6 million and 200 technicians are in the field collecting information through timely detection," said the official.

While the production sector also makes investments to keep the disease out of the borders. The producers calculate that they invest between $0.08 and $0.13 per box of bananas.

In Ecuador there are approximately 300,000 hectares of banana planted, of which 44,000 are in the province of El Oro. According to data from the Central Bank of Ecuador, in 2022, 7 million metric tons were exported with an FOB value of $ 3,500 million representing a 15.5% participation in non-oil exports.

According to the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology (Fontagro), countries that also have the plague such as Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia had an economic loss of $380 million in 2021 in the banana industry, a problem that has spread to more than from 20 countries in the world.

Meanwhile, the simulation carried out in Ecuador was attended by authorities from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), the National Institute for Agricultural Research (Iniap), delegates from banana and plantain producer and exporter associations, academia, among others. who make up the Inter-institutional Work Committee for the prevention of the entry of Fusarium Race 4 and consisted of the live transmission of the activities established in the contingency plan against the plague, biosecurity measures, phytosanitary surveillance, sampling and intervention of a outbreak.

On the other hand, the Symposium 'Key factors for the detection, management and control of Foc R4T' was attended by national and international experts from the FAO, the International Regional Organization for Agricultural Health (Oirsa), the Colombian Corporation for Agricultural Research (Agrosavia), Biodiversity-CIAT among others, which issued recommendations for the improvement of phytosanitary protocols and the updating of the National Contingency Plan for the prevention, detection and control of this pest.