The president of the Foundation for the Improvement of the Banana in Venezuela, Jose Rafael Urdaneta, said that some 50,000 tons of bananas are at risk of loss if the authorities do not supply fuel to the vehicles of the 4,000 production units located in the southern area of the Zulia’s lake, where 80% of this fruit is grown in the country.
Urdaneta warned that 30% of the producers who sow bananas need gasoline and diesel for the machinery that allows them to drain the plantations, which are flooded by the rains. He also indicated that they need between 200 and 400 liters of gasoline to start up to 500 water pumps.
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“The Government is giving gasoline in some service stations to fill loaded trucks and is working for a part of the distribution sector but not the sector that produces,” the industry leader told El Pitazo.
They claim that there have been 15 days of rain and they have not been able to drain the water on the farms. Without that, they cannot control the planting, nor take supplies and food for the workers.
The Foundation estimates that there are 30,000 hectares cultivated with several banana varieties, or the bread of the poor, as Urdaneta called it, are at risk.
