A mango seed weevil pest, the first of its kind in Europe, detected for the first time in 2013 and again in 2015 in the municipality of Vélez-Málaga, threatened the cultivation of mangoes in the region of La Axarquía; the largest producer of this subtropical fruit in Spain.
According to the Councilor for Agriculture, María Santana, the previous government team (of the PP) "did nothing to tackle this problem, and when the new team arrived in 2015, a farm was already in deplorable conditions."
Santana said that, in August of that year, "the mango seed weevil was again detected in a different area of the farm, so it had spread. And since the farm belonged to the Town Council, the issue may have put an end to mango cultivation in the entire Axarquía."
She said that since the pest was detected for the second time, the government's efforts have focused on controlling "this serious phytosanitary issue." The farm was quarantined and more aggressive phytosanitary treatments were adopted. These also had to be applied by the owners of the farms located within a radius of one kilometer.
She stated that, since August of this year, the farm has been certified by the Andalusian Government as free of the mango seed weevil.
Source: EFE
