Ecobreves – MEXICO: Christmas Trees and Plagues from the North

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Dec 1 2008 (IPS) - With Christmas trees imported from Canada and Mexico, pests are arriving in Mexico, but the authorities are doing little or nothing about it, complain Mexican forestry producers. Foreign competition is hard, “and is supported by the inefficiency of the officials, who don't inspect the imports,” Matías Arredondo, of the National Association of Christmas Tree Growers, told Tierramérica.

Of the 1.8 million Christmas trees that will be sold in Mexico in December, 30 percent come from Mexican sources — most subject to phytosanitary inspections. There are also reviews of imports, but they are random and cover less than 10 percent of the total.

According to Arredondo, the trees coming in from abroad are lower quality and sick, compared to the local inventory.