San Pedro Sula.
Pandemic covid-19 and both Hurricanes Eta and Iota leave the agricultural and livestock sector immersed in crisis the most dramatic in the last 20 years and facing the risk of losing ground on the international market due to breaches of contract.
From bean growers, who have made one of the best harvests, to palm oil exporters, who now sell at better prices, they have taken heavy blows and are now on the verge of closing the year with irreparable losses. This year “was a catastrophe for the agricultural sector, especially for the north,” he said Edgardo Leiva, executive director at Honduran Association of Milk Producers (Aproleche).
“The Sula Valley A catastrophe happened to the producers of milk, beef and pork. There are companies and small producers that have lost everything. This is of unprecedented magnitude. They could not save anything, “he said in a telephone interview The newspaper LA PRENSA.
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13,000 metric tons Citrus growers have stopped harvesting due to the November rains. |
According to Leiva, milk and meat producers, both cattle and pigs, are the criterion according to which “production units will increase” in the entire agricultural and livestock sector of the country, “additional support” is needed for 2021, but “It is not it is not only about financial support, but also international support for the government, because after crisis left by him covid-19 it is difficult for the government to provide a solution to the problems Eta y Iota“.
One month after the devastation caused by Eta and Iota, Secretariat for Agriculture and Livestock (SAG) has not yet been able to quantify the damage in the whole sector, due to the large destruction of plantations which, even so far, many of them are still flooded.
By the end of last month, the secretariat, for example, had registered 7,971 lost banana apples, 13,000 citrus apples, 5,566 rice and more than 150,000 flooded oil palm trees.
Hector Castro, president of the Honduran Oil Producers Association (Aipah) considers that “despite the pandemic, 2020 was not a bad year for the oil palm, because the prices on the international market have recovered, they are around 900 dollars”.
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7971 Banana apples were lost, according to the account of the Ministry of Agriculture by the end of November. |
Unfortunately, Castro believes, producers in this important sector cannot take advantage of rising prices “because most, especially those in Sula ValleyIt does not harvest because more than 17,000 hectares of palm plantations have been lost ”.
“It is a total loss. Palma ends the pathetic year with a crisis as well as the entire agricultural sector of the Sula Valley, because two months without harvesting represents 15% of the total production of a year. In addition, there is no infrastructure. The producers enter the field to clean, but they cannot remove the fruit, there is still water on the secondary and tertiary roads “, he said.
“We have no hope that this will return government shortly. The situation is really worrying, you have to have a lot of stoicism to be able to deal with this “.
The adverse situation facing oil producers, which translates into reduced exports and breaches of contracts with their buyers, puts producers in control of the international market, as colleagues in neighboring countries fill the gap that, for Eta y Iota, will leave in the last months of 2020 and the first of 2021.
“It’s like bananas. It’s very similar. There are contracts. Buyer of US o Europe signs a contract with suppliers, with new sellers. These contracts have implicit clauses. For non-compliance, it penalizes us first even if we claim that there are cases of force majeure, and then the buyer goes to find other suppliers. What happens? All the additional costs they incur for emergency purchases are charged by us, “he said.” We do not sell and suffer sanctions, “he explained.
Castro considers that ” government it has no plan, the ministers react according to their own criteria, they do not have a strategic vision and no economic resources to execute a plan, the situation is extremely serious, the entire productive structure has collapsed ”.
The last two hurricanes They have also come to destabilize farmers from non-traditional products who, amid coronavirus-based restrictions, have avoided obstacles to remaining in markets where there has been a reduction in consumption.
Despite covid-19, accordingly Medardo Galindo, manager al Federation of Agro-Exporters of Honduras (FPX), “by the middle of the year, all exports were within normal limits, but hurricanes came, which caused a decline in products such as bananas, palm oil, animals and non-traditional products.”
“For example, before the hurricanes, we exported about 500 containers of okra a week, now, maybe 200, exports have been reduced by 50% in the last two months. For non-traditional products, I was lucky that, when the pandemic came, I was already out of the export season, with a little more than half, it didn’t affect much. Now, the planting is done normally and we hope that at the end of December and the beginning of January we will start the export season again “, said Galindo.
FPX estimates that by the end of 2020, the non-traditional sector will ship approximately 35,000 containers of bananas, fruits and vegetables to the international market, a quantity similar to last year.
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35.195 affected reed apples, ie flooded, not destroyed during hurricanes. |
“Products such as okra, tilapia fillet, vegetables, which are highly perishable and exported by air, have been affected by the closure. Ramón Villeda Morales Airport where I usually go. To export, Candy is very expensive.
Some of the manufacturers choose to export through Comalapa, El Salvador, which is also expensive. We, through the Federation, ask government to allow some facilities in Palmerola to at least export as soon as possible, “he said.
According to Galindo, it is urgent to allow Palmerola for exports, as tilapia fillet producers send about 600,000 kilograms a week abroad, while oriental vegetable producers send about 400,000 kilograms, 70% to the United States and 30% in the United States. Europe.
“We need to see ourselves in terms of competitiveness compared to other countries that export the same thing. Guatemala and Costa Rica have continued and continue to export. It seems to them that there was no pandemic or hurricane. It exports up to two and three times more than Honduras, ”he warned.
“They are more competitive than we are. He government You have to see this because they can take us out of the market. “
In the cereals sector, the consequences covid-19 and by Eta y Iota They did not have catastrophic dimensions, but the production of beans that would come out at the end of this year was drastically reduced due to the abundance of rains.
“In 2020, the national corn production has achieved a very good performance, unfortunately, we do not have a market to sell the existing national offer. The massive planting of first class beans has allowed a national supply to continue. Of Eta y Iota, the second planting was lost by 85%. We have only 15% of the national production.
We will have a deficit, but government launches a campaign called Delayed Sowing Dessert to Cover National Demand, “said Dulio Medina, President Honduras National Association of Farmers and Cereal Producers (Prograne).
Medina said corn growers are not facing difficulties because of it Eta y Iota, but for “trade reasons” that are related to the market and the free trade agreement with the United States.
“From corn, we managed to place only 1,360,000 quintals out of the 8,000,000 quintals we produce in the three cycles. That leaves us in the lurch. We already have the presence of the free trade agreement and the balanced products industry no longer buys domestic production to produce concentrates, but imports it.
They said they would accompany the national production, but the problem is that they offered us too low a price, “he said.