In October 2023, a resident of Motril saw some rare insects on a pair of ornamental avocados and uploaded a photo to social networks to see if someone could help him identify them. That’s where it all started.
The City Council, first, and the Junta de Andalucía, later, launched a location and elimination mechanism: specific traps were installed, hectares and hectares of plantations were checked and they began to remove entire trees. In September, the Ministry was notified: everything seemed to indicate that the ambrosia beetle had settled in southern Spain.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Junta de Andalucía has just officially declared it.
Ragweed beetle? He Euwallacea fornicatus It is a very small and difficult to see beetle native to Southeast Asia. Its importance, the Board explains, is that “it is associated with the avocado wilt fungus due to Fusarium sp. and therefore behaves as a transmission vector. Ultimately, this disease causes the death of the tree.”
Today, the pest “is causing serious damage to avocado crops and numerous ornamental species” in the United States (California and Florida), Israel, South Africa, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
And that’s the problem. Andalusia is “the main producing area of tropical crops within the European continent” and Motril is located in the heart of the 12,000 hectares of avocados on the Andalusian Mediterranean coast. The arrival of E. fornicate to these regions can cause havoc in a sector that, due to the drought, has been suffering greatly for years (last year some areas lost 90% of production).
And where is the beetle? As published this week in the BOJA, the infested area corresponds to three plots located in the urban area of Motril and two other neighboring farms (one of them not cultivated). To that, the Ministry adds “a buffer zone of one kilometer” around it.
What will happen from now on? Exhaustive monitoring of all areas likely to be infected will be carried out. And, immediately afterwards, any tree or bush in which “the presence of the pest is suspected or confirmed” will be immediately pruned.
But not only that. Because a stage full of uncertainties opens: only between the Axarquía of Malaga and the Costa Tropical of Granada, tens of thousands of tons of avocados are produced. So much so that the product has become a true “green mine” that, despite having been highly criticized (and rightly so), has become a regional economic engine.
If the Board fails to control and eliminate the pest, Andalusia’s reign in the European tropical fruit market may be compromised. And a lot.
Image | Junta of Andalusia | John Cameron
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