Farmers in southern Sinaloa could benefit from this product and not be pigeonholed with the same ones they have always used, says a leader.
MAZATLÁN.- The south of Sinaloa has an important history in the sowing and harvesting of Agave, as well as the production of mezcal where Mazatlán heads the list of the four Sinaloan municipalities that have this fortune of sowing and harvesting together with San Ignacio, Concordia, and El Rosario.
It was on October 12, 2021, when the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property IMPI authorized the extension of the Mezcal Designation of Origin to the aforementioned municipalities.
The president of the Association of Farmers of the Presidio River, Octavio Loaiza Torres, stated that there is a great opportunity for the agricultural sector of Mazatlán, San Ignacio, Concordia, and Rosario, since all the agave and mezcal product that is made in said municipalities they may be called mezcal.
He pointed out that currently mezcal has had a great boom throughout the world, and it is something that has to be taken advantage of, which is why a project is already being worked on to present it to the Sinaloa Secretariat of Economic Development and work with farmers in the highlands and lowlands.
“Mezcal does not take up water, lands that do not have water can be incorporated into a profitable crop, we know that it is very hard work, but we are already used to that, making this type of proposal and helping,” said Loaiza Torres.
He indicated that it is already promoting who sells the seed, the plant, in order to present it to producers who wish to plant agave on their land and also find who can market them.
“The agave can last 4 or 5 years, we are putting together a technological package that fits with the financial system, looking for a credit to the agave producers”, the leader pointed out.
DATA
The Council for the Development of Sinaloa, Codesin, and the Agrifood Information Service, SIAP, have a record with a cutoff of 2020, of 5,797 hectares planted with agave in the four aforementioned municipalities.
El Rosario: 5,100 hours
Mazatlan: 428 hours
Concord: 255 hrs
Sa Ignacio: 2 p.m.
Situation of the agave in the south of Sinaloa
MUNICIPALITY | SEM* | COS | WITHOUT | VOL | REN | PRICE | PRODUCT V. |
San Ignacio | 14 | 14 | 0 | 1,050 | 10,791 | 11,330 | 5’050,000 |
Mazatlan | 428 | 164 | 0 | 5,412 | 33 | 14,644 | 79,254,193 |
Concordia | 255 | 255 | 0 | 9,817.5 | 38.5 | 15,935 | 156,442,058 |
Rosario | 5100 | 500 | 0 | 16,000 | 32 | 15,096 | 241,536,000 |
SEM, seeded; COS, harvested; SIN, casualties; VOL, production volume; REN, performance; Price; V.PROD, production value.