Move follows discovery of suspected TR4 outbreak in El Oro in September
The Banana Exporters Association of Ecuador (Aebe) has joined the Aler4ta Regional Governance and Coordination Committee, a body led by the German Agency for International Cooperation (Giz) to coordinate regional efforts for the prevention, containment, and control of Fusarium Wilt TR4 in the Andean region.
The announcement was made by Paul Vera, director of Aebe’s Statistics Observatory, during a regional workshop for the Estamos Aler4ta project, held in Colombia recently.
Ecuador has been on high alert following the discovery of an outbreak of what authorities believe is TR4 in El Oro in early September.
Aebe has been actively collaborating with this initiative since 2023, working within the framework of the Estamos Aler4ta project to assess the adoption and compliance with biosecurity measures in the province of El Oro and to develop a risk map of the introduction of TR4 into the country.
Fusarium Wilt TR4 is a highly destructive soil-borne fungal disease that affects bananas, clogging the plant’s vascular system, causing a fatal wilt.
There is no effective cure, and the fungus can persist in the soil for decades. Within Latin America, it was first discovered in Colombia in 2019, followed by Peru in 2021 and Venezuela in 2023.
