The authorities of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as well as representatives of the private sector and the offices of the National Authorizing Officer of the European Development Fund (EDF) for each of the countries, held a bilateral working meeting on the validation of the strategy to prevent the appearance of Monilia and the emergency protocol.

Although so far, no case of cacti moniliaosis also known as icy rot, (caused by the fungus Moniliophthora roreri) one of the most devastating diseases in cocoa plantations. The threat is very real in the world, because the disease has been present in Jamaica since 2015, where it causes serious damage and could, if it affected the island, endanger the country mportant economic value chain of the cocoa sub-sector, an essential crop for both countries.

The threat to the cocoa of the island is all the greater as the frequent cyclone phenomena in the region can favor the transport of spores from Jamaica's monilia to Haiti and the neighboring Republic. Smuggling with countries already affected by this disease is also a potential source of contamination risk.

Participated in this meeting held in a hotel in Santo Domingo among others : Hervé Philippe, Technical Advisor of the Office of the National Ordinator of Haiti, José Villagra, European Union, Reynaldo Ferreiras, Director from the cocoa department of the Dominican Ministry of Agriculture, Cleome Abel, representative of the Ministry of Agriculture of Haiti; Kim Sassine, Executive Director of the Haiti Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Idelfonso Medina, Executive Vice President of DR Cocoa Foundation, as well as several experts and specialists in the field.

Ambassador Vargas Hernández, of the Directorate General of Multilateral Cooperation, underlined "The alert to the threat of the monilia forces the authorities, the producers and the different sectors related to its marketing and the general population of the two countries, to monitor the symptoms of his appearance."

Learn more about cocoa monolysis :

The monolysis of cocoa, a fungal disease caused by the fungus Moniliophthora roreri, has been causing serious damage in several Latin American countries for almost a century. The fungus attacks the pods and after an incubation period of 40 to 60 days, brown spots appear quickly followed by the development of thick spore felts, constituting the secondary inoculum. The Moniliophthora roreri has a high capacity for spread, a single infected pod can produce more than 7 billion spores, a quantity largely sufficient to contaminate all cocoa plantations in Haiti.

The control methods used involve the application of fungicides and cultural techniques to reduce the source of inoculum and to slow the development of the disease. These methods are however not very profitable and the orientation is in search of sources of intrinsic resistance, by means of artificial inoculations.

SL/ HaitiLibre