Julio de la Mora Razura, the federal delegate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fishing, and Food (Sagarpa), said there had been a training course to review bilateral trade agreements and the phytosanitary requirements for export. The goal of the course was to support producers of avocado in the State of Mexico so that they can directly export their product to the US.
The federal official said the course included a presentation about the primary measures to control regulatory avocado pests in the campaign, the biological aspects of the pests and the preventive measures for complex ambrosial insects and their hosts, and the implementation of pollution risk reduction systems; programs that are all needed by potential exports to the United States.
A Technical Committee formed by producers, personnel of SAGARPA, SENASICA, SEDAGRO, CESAVEM, Plant Health Boards, and Local Councils was created at the meeting. The Committee's objective is to accompany producers within the State municipalities free zones and/ or agro-ecological areas that wish to participate in the export program to the United States by complying with a work plan for exporting to said country.
According to Mora Razura, the Committee will start working immediately so that the first shipments to the United States are achieved in 2016.
He said they would be holding a meeting at the CECAEM of SEDAGRO with producers who fulfil the required profile in order to set the standards of the program. Later on, there would be a second meeting with potential buyers from different countries, and a third in which producers and buyers would work together to generate a business strategy, define key points of the master plan, and address the issues of feasible orchards, registered packaging, the origin and export destination strategy, and the presentation of the axes of the master plan.
Julio de la Mora emphasized that SAGARPA and SEDAGRO were working in close coordination to achieve this goal. "There is much to do to strengthen the phytosanitary status through updated laws and standards that have a greater extent at the federal level, which will ensure better control and monitoring of good agricultural practices and traceability schemes," he said.
He also stated that it was important to boost avocado production in the State of Mexico to promote economic development and job creation.
Additionally, he said that the Government of the Republic considered health and safety to be priorities, as they are the key to the commercial opening of Mexican food products and boosting exports to other countries.
Michoacán produces 8 out of every 10 tons of avocado produced in Mexico, consolidating it as the leading producer of avocados in Mexico; followed by: Jalisco, the State of Mexico, Morelos and Nayarit; which all together account for 95% of the national production.
The State of Mexico is the third biggest avocado producer in the country. It has 7,420 hectares devoted to this crop, 5,840 hectares of which are currently harvested and production amounts to 64,928 tons worth $686,993,000 pesos. The municipalities that stand out in the production of this food are Coatepec, Harinas, Temascaltepec, Tenancingo, Donato Guerra, Villa de Allende, Almoloya de Alquisiras, and Villa Guerrero.
