14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the State Phytosanitary Services (SFE) division at the Costa Rican Agriculture and Livestock Ministry declared a national crop emergency for bananas on Tuesday, December 10, after waves upon waves of insects infested the country's main staple food source.
Bananas are also the main source of income for the impoverished Central American nation, so this warning from authorities means that the situation is dire. Statistics from the Foreign Trade Promotion office indicate that Costa Rica made $815 million (€593 million) selling 1.2 million tons of bananas in 2012.
This year's harvest is very likely to drop considerably from 2012 levels, now that more than 24,000 hectares of plantations have been infected by scale insects and mealybugs. While these creatures do not kill bananas or banana tree, they cause unsightly damages on the fruit, meaning that exporters will not accepted damaged lots.
“Climate change, by affecting temperature, favors the conditions under which the insects reproduce,” told The Tico Times Magda González, who is the director of the SFE. “I can tell you with near certainty that climate change is behind these pests,” she concludes, quoted by Think Progress.