News (Page 207)

by ichola Watson, Fresh Plaza   The citrus harvest is under way in some areas of South Africa. In the north around the Hoedspruit area, volumes of grapefruit will be down by as much as 2 million boxes due to hail last year and the prolonged drought.   Other citrus fruitContinue Reading

by Nathaneal Johnson, Grist     In the winter of 2014, students at Iowa State University received emails asking them to volunteer for an experiment. Researchers were looking for women who would eat bananas that had been genetically engineered to produce extra carotenes, the yellow-orange nutrients that take their nameContinue Reading

by Charlie McKillop, ABC Rural   March 3, 2015 was the day banana growers in far north Queensland hoped would never come.   Biosecurity authorities revealed the deadly soil disease, Panama Tropical Race 4, or TR4, had been found in the Tully Valley.   Growers were warned the world as theyContinue Reading

by Craig Zonca, ABC Rural     Queensland biosecurity authorities remain on high alert for the devastating banana disease Panama Tropical Race 4 (TR4), 12 months after it was first detected in the state’s north.   “It’s been a massive year,” said Queensland’s chief biosecurity officer Jim Thompson.   “One of theContinue Reading

  The Citrus Growers Association of Peru (Procitrus) stated that Peruvian mandarin exports in 2015 amounted to 100,800 metric tons, which account for 88 percent of the country’s total citrus shipments.   “The satsuma, clementine, Murcott, and Minneola tangelo mandarins have become the stars of Peruvian citrus exports,” they said.Continue Reading

by Kallee Buchanan and Trudie Leigo, ABC Rural   In Queensland, researchers are dwarfing mangos, macadamias and avocados in an attempt to increase productivity of these tree crops.   The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries is three years into a 20-year trial and has begun sharing its experience to date withContinue Reading

by Anouk Sijmonsma, Fresh Plaza   “The price of import bananas has been steadily going up in these last weeks. Currently, prices are as high as RMB110.00 (USD 17.01) per carton at the port of Dalian, coming from RMB60.00 (USD 9.28) per carton three months ago. Prices are increasing because both domestic bananaContinue Reading

  Just over five years ago the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL) Kawanda released the M-9 banana variety; since then it has seen an unprecedented rate of adoption, due to its popularity among farmers and consumers. M-9 or Kabana 6H, is resistant to Black Sigatoka (BS) disease and tolerant to nematodesContinue Reading

  Every March, a large volume of mangos swarm to the market, and they can be seen everywhere on the fruit stands. The main mango varieties include Little Taiwan Mango, Big Gold Mango etc, and the most popular one, also the cheapest one is little Taiwan Mango, which is soldContinue Reading

by Joel Pitarch Diago, Fresh Plaza     The impact of the weather phenomenon El Niño and the market growth of Central American countries led to uncertainty in Ecuador’s banana sector, but “to the surprise of the export market, the situation has been much better than expected and the demand forContinue Reading