Last Saturday, the export protocol for the Ecuadorian pitahaya was signed in China, stated Julio Jose Prado, Ecuador's Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments, and Fisheries. This is good news for Ecuador's pitahaya producing sector, which in 2021 exported 17,895 tons of pitahaya, i.e. 60% more than in the previous year.
According to Gabriel Cruz, the president of the Association of Pitahaya Producers of the Palora canton, in Morona Santiago, a province that concentrates 65% of the registered production sites, they should start exporting this fruit to China in June.
Until now, the pitahaya could not enter the Chinese market because this market required Good Agricultural Practices certifications, Cruz stated. Currently, 80 of the 1,500 producers dedicated to this activity have already been certified to export to the Asian giant. By June, we expect approximately 500 will be certified to do so, he added.
Cruz said the sector had high expectations because the Chinese market might consume up to three times the volume consumed by the United States, the country's pitahaya's current main destination with just over 84% of exports.
Cruz also said it was important to set prices per season, based on a minimum price that would be $2.5 per kilo of fresh fruit for export. It's very important that the State assist producers by lowering the cost of inputs, eliminating tariffs, promoting competition, giving access to technology and soft loans to invest in infrastructure, he added. "This would allow producers to be more productive, lower their costs per kilo, and, in turn, improve their profitability," Cruz stated.
Source: eluniverso.com