Page 32 - aruba-today-20190831

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 31 auguSt 2019
Banana industry on alert after disease arrives in Colombia

By MANUEL RUEDA and people understand that
CANDICE CHOI stealing bananas nowa-
Associated Press days can have greater re-
LA GUAJIRA, Colombia percussions," said Francisco
(AP) — It might not be ob- Zuniga, the president of
vious at the supermarket, Asbama, a Colombian ba-
but the banana industry is nana farmers association.
fighting to protect the most So far, the fungus has been
popular variety of the fruit detected on six farms in
from a destructive fungus. Colombia. All are located
A disease that ravages in La Guajira, a province
banana crops has made near the border with Ven-
its long-dreaded arrival in ezuela. Officials say the af-
Latin America, the biggest fected area is still small at
exporter of the crop. That's 490 acres (200 hectares),
reigniting worries about the and is not making a dent
global market's depen- on the country's exports.
dence on a single type of But there are concerns that
banana, the Cavendish, the arrival of the disease
which is known for its dura- will change Colombia's
bility in shipping. Healthy Cavendish banana plants grow on a plantation between Riohacha and Santa Marta, banana industry forever,
For years, scientists have Colombia, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. forcing farms and the gov-
said big banana compa- Associated Press ernment to spend more on
nies like Chiquita and Dole sanitary measures.
would eventually need to supermarkets, without rip- Tropical Race 4 disease, ment workers in scrubs and In La Guajira, officials have
find new banana varieties ening too quickly. coping strategies have in- rubber boots. uprooted plants where the
as the disease spread in Still, history has shown the cluded planting less sus- The fungus travels on small fungus has been detected
countries in Asia and else- risks of relying on a single ceptible Cavendish variet- particles of soil that can and covered the soil with
where. Then this month, the banana variety. Not that ies or moving to uninfected stick to truck tires, farm black plastic sheets that
fungus was confirmed in long ago, the world market farmland, according to equipment or workers' raise the temperatures to
Colombia, one of the top was ruled by another ba- Ploetz. But those varieties shoes. And in Colombia, levels that could stop the
exporters in Latin America, nana, the Gros Michel, aka aren't as productive and farmers fear that thieves disease from spreading.
prompting officials in the the Big Mike. Experts say still eventually succumb who sneak into planta- Healthy plants within a 60
country to declare a state it was even easier to ship to the fungus, which can tions to steal bananas foot (20 meter) radius of
of emergency. than the Cavendish, and survive in soil for decades. could accidentally spread the affected areas are also
Banana industry watch- sweeter (though others Growers will also eventually the disease. Some farms in killed with chemicals as a
ers say it's more proof the contend it tasted similar). run out of uninfected land. Colombia are only lightly preventive measure.
Cavendish's days are num- Either way, the Gros Michel In Colombia, special mea- guarded and are separat- "We will continue to work to-
bered, but that there's still was ravaged by the 1950s sures being taken to stop ed from interstate roads by wards stopping this disease
plenty of time to find alter- by an earlier strain of the the disease from spreading small fences. The situation from spreading to the rest
natives. disease now stalking the include sanitary controls at has prompted police and of Colombia," Agriculture
"I don't think it's going to im- Cavendish. the entrance to plantations Colombia's military to step Minister Andres Valencia
pact the availability of the This time, there's no obvious and roadblocks where up presence around ba- told The Associated Press
Cavenidsh in supermarkets backup banana waiting in trucks traveling between nana plantations since the during a visit to La Guajira.
anytime soon," said Randy the wings to take over. banana farms and ports disease was detected. "But eventually we have to
Ploetz, a retired scientist In Asian countries hit by the are disinfected by govern- "We are trying to make make the transition to other
from the University of Flor- varieties of banana that will
ida who studied tropical resist this disease."
plant diseases. Gert Kema, a plant scientist
While all sorts of bananas who studies bananas, also
are grown around the world said the industry needs to
for domestic consumption, diversify. He said there are
the ones shipped to places many types of tomatoes
including the United States and peppers, and that ba-
and the European Union nanas should be no differ-
are mostly Cavendishes. ent.
It may seem odd that the "We have collectively ac-
world banana market cepted that we have just
would hitch its fortunes to one banana," Kema said.
a single variety, but mass Banana diversity means
producing just one kind is higher costs, however, and
a way to keep costs down, it's not clear that people
which also helps make ba- would be willing to pay
nanas so widely available. more for the fruit.
Bananas are also hard to Another challenge is that
breed, and finding varieties the fungus is lethal to a wide
suited to global commerce array of bananas. That's
isn't easy. In addition to be- also a problem for places
ing productive, Cavendish where starchier, cooked
plants yield bananas that A man sells bananas near a quarantined banana plantation affected by a destructive fungus near bananas are a food staple,
can survive the trip from Riohacha, Colombia, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019. including some countries in
warm climates to far-flung Associated Press Africa and Latin America.q