Puerto Rican, pineapple growers went to courts from that country with a single goal: to get an order from the Department of Agriculture (DA) to prohibit the importation of Costa Rican, pineapple seed.
According to the complaint, Costa Rican seeds would be related to diseases that affect the Puerto Rican industry. National seeds are imported because new companies acquire them for their plantations.
According to Puerto Rican producers, Costa Rican, pineapple seed could be affected by fungi that damage plantations. In fact, the person who gave the alert was an academic at the University of Puerto Rico, in Mayagüez.
Even though local producers disagree with the policy, the DA has promoted the importation of foreign seeds.
Instead of implementing the Plant Protection Act and its regulations, which are government tools to curb the import of plants and seeds that could be harmful to local agriculture, the DA is sheltering in technicalities that threaten a crop that is being fully developed,
complained Mickey Santiago, pineapple producers’ spokesman.
These claims are not new. They have already been unsuccessfully presented to the Secretariat of Agriculture and the Agriculture Committee of Puerto Rico.