"One of the main activities to be given a boost by Serviagro, will be the production of organic bananas in Piura, carried out by small producers in the region and organised in cooperatives and organisations," highlighted José Manuel Hernández Calderón, Peruvian Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation (Minagri), during his working trip to Piura to attend the main sessions of the ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum (APEC).
Hernández Calderón also met with the regional governor of Piura, Reynaldo Hilbck, to discuss the possibility of creating an institute specialised in organic bananas.
This measure, he said, would help improve the quality of the crop, and to this end they would take a similar institute, operating in Costa Rica, as an example.
According to the Minagri, a total of 190,000 metric tonnes of organic bananas, worth 145 million dollars, was exported in 2015. The most important destination was the United States, followed by the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, South Korea, Finland and Japan.
The main producing regions of bananas and plantains are located in the northern jungle (Loreto, Amazonas, San Martin), the central jungle (Junin and Ucayali) and the north coast (Tumbes, Piura and Lambayeque).
Source: elperuano.com.pe