Agrocalidad declares a six-month phytosanitary emergency after the presence of the fungus on a farm in El Oro province is corroborated
Ecuador has confirmed the presence of the Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4 (TR4) fungus on a banana farm in the province of El Oro. Plant health authority Agrocalidad made the announcement on 18 December after completing laboratory analyses.
The first confirmed case of TR4 in Latin America was in Colombia in 2019. Since then, the fungus has caused major damage in Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. Ecuador, the world’s leading banana exporter, has spent years preparing protocols to contain any outbreak of the fungus and continue supplying bananas to more than 70 countries around the world.
The suspected case was reported on a seven-hectare farm in Santa Rosa, near the border with Peru. Its discovery in September triggered all the containment protocols developed over the years.
Following the detection, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MAGP) declared a phytosanitary emergency for the banana sector.
Over the past 14 years, Ecuador has invested more than US$34mn in preparing for the inevitable arrival of TR4.
In a statement, the Ecuadorean Banana Cluster, made up of several industry associations, said it had been training producers, mapping risk zones, distributing biosecurity kits, and strengthening phytosanitary surveillance in preparation for TR4.
“Through these programmes, technical studies and biosecurity audits have been conducted on more than 1,500 farms, and monitoring systems using drones and satellite imagery have been implemented, covering more than 40 percent of the banana-growing area in the provinces of El Oro, Guayas, and Los Ríos,” the Cluster said.
