Coriander producers from Puebla have lost 60 million pesos since the Food and Drug Administration of the United States (FDA) implemented a ban on coriander exports on July 27.
The President of the Agricultural State Council (Ceagro), Francisco Alvarez Laso, stated the ban had an irreversible effect on 700 producers of 21 municipalities, as well as on 40 exporting companies, which sent around 90,000 tons of coriander to the US every year.
He regretted that this situation had given the coriander from Puebla a bad reputation in the country, as they now had to sell the product up to 40% cheaper in the markets.
Producers, he said, are worried that this veto will be maintained until next month, since they can't continue squandering their harvest.
He insisted that, with its restriction, the FDA was only looking to assist farmers who also cultivate this crop in California, place their products in the grocery stores.
Puebla has 1,341 hectares devoted to coriander crops, which generate 120,000 tons of coriander a year. In 2014, Puebla was the largest national producer, followed by Baja California, Zacatecas, Tlaxcala, Michoacán, Aguascalientes, Sonora, Jalisco and Hidalgo.
SAGARPA will train farmers
The delegate of the Ministry of agriculture (Sagarpa), Alberto Jimenez Merino, stated there were no laboratory tests that demonstrated that this vegetable didn't comply with the health measures required by the authorities of the United States.
He said they had held a meeting with producers and exporters to discuss the situation, and that they had agreed to carry out training workshops to resume the export of this plant in September.
He recalled that the research was related to the outbreak of cyclosporiasis in the US during 2013 and 2014, after researchers found human feces and toilet paper in the crop's fields.
