The national average of exported banana boxes is 1,684, if the 320 million boxes exported in 2015 are divided by 190,000 hectares registered by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Alonso Vindas, a Costa Rican who represents the French firm Fruitière and who coincided with daily Expreso at the Santa Barbara 1 farm, ensures that such productivity levels are not seen in Costa Rica.
“With less fertilizer doses, we have achieved productivity in the fruit volume;.. we lowered fertilization between 10 and 30% and still yields have increased between 5 and 10%. This is a technical job. We maximized the absorption of minerals improving the quality of soils,” said Julio Bravo, Agrimen manager and consultant in the use of organic products.
Fertilization is usually for the plant, not the soil, which must continue providing nutrients. A banana crop extracts 800-1000 kilos of potassium per hectare per year and the farmer provides 300 or 400 in the best case scenario, the rest is taken from the soil. Bioles function is to decompose faster the material (stems, leaves and others) to enrich the soil.