Nine departments of Peru will be free from fruit fly by 2023 according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (Minagri), which announced this week that it was intensifying efforts to eradicate the disease in order to boost the country’s horticultural exports.
Declaring the regions of Amazonas, Apurímac, Cajamarca, Cusco, La Libertad, Lambayeque, Piura, Puno and Tumbes as fruit fly free will also play a significant part in to raising the competitiveness of small producers and increasing farmer incomes, Minagri said.
Agriculture Minister Jorge Montenegro reaffirmed the government’s commitment to redouble its actions to eradicate fruit fly, by providing greater support to the National Agricultural Health Service (Senasa). Minagri recently delivered 403 motorcycles and 82 vans to Senasa employees in order to support their monitoring activities.
Peruvian fruit exports between January and September reached US$2.148bn, an increase of 7 per cent on the same period of last year, according to Adex.
Avocados led the charge, accounting for US$740m of the total, a fall of 4 per cent on the year-earlier period. This was followed by table grapes (US$373m), blueberries (US$347m), mangoes, mandarins and bananas.
