The citrus production is currently affected by a plague that threatens to destroy this industry in Puerto Rico, according to Jorge Mendez Roig, president of Productores Citricos de la Montaña.
The businessman said that Puerto Rican farmers are in a very critical situation because the methods to mitigate this scourge, which appeared four years ago, require the use of pesticides and other chemicals that are very expensive.
He assured the newspaper Primera Hora that they have lost nearly 80 percent of their crops in the central region, which accounts for the majority of citrus crops of this Caribbean island, this year.
Mendez Roig said the plague, citrus greening, entered the country through the West, which houses the Hacienda Valencia, whose owners have had more than $100,000 dollars in losses this year.
Jose Zamora Echevarria, an agronomist, told the newspaper that the disease is caused by bacteria transmitted by the psyllid insect.
This microbe resides in the vascular system of the tree, where it produces internal calluses that block the phloem's flow, interrupting its path from the leaves to the roots, thus causing chlorophyll deficiencies and disorders throughout the plant's system, killing it slowly.
Farmers fear that this phenomenon will reach all the citrus groves of Puerto Rico, so they demanded government intervention.
"Studies suggest that about $ 8.5 million dollars are required to begin mitigating the pest, stop its devastation and prevent the disappearance of the producers," revealed Mendez Roig.
The problem is that, in the midst of the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, the Minister of Agriculture, Myrna Comas, acknowledged that there is not that much money to help citrus growers.
According to data from Productores Citricos de la Montaña, the demand for oranges in Puerto Rico is of 4,500 tons per year, but production has fallen to 3,900 tons and they fear it will fall to 2,000 tons this year.
Source: Prensa-latina