During the second half of 2020, the department of Tolima is expected to export more than 80 containers of Hass avocado, each with 22,000 kilos of fruit, to the European Union and Asian markets.
Gustavo Miranda, the president of the Federation of Avocado Producers of Tolima (Paltolima), stated that the fruit's second harvest begins in August and will last until December. "To export this amount of fruit to very demanding markets, such as the European market, we had to carry out several processes: Organize ourselves in associations, comply with all the procedures to obtain certifications in Good Agricultural Practices as export farms, and then form the federation."
“The next step was to achieve the construction of the Guayamer Armero Sorting Plant with contributions from the Ministry of Agriculture and Tolima's Governorate. This is where we have our operations and classification center and from where we send our Hass avocado to Europe,” he stated.
Miranda also said that 20% of Tolima's avocado production is used to supply large stores and chain stores in several cities in Colombia. According to him, the great challenge now is to get more families to obtain BPA Good Agricultural Practices certification as export farms.
"We produce a lot of avocado on this land, but only 30% has been certified and our goal is to have more producers exporting every day," he said.
Source: alertatolima.com