Five lemon packing plants in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacan will close their doors permanently in the face of the insecurity in the area due to the presence of criminal groups that are dedicated to extorting and collecting fees from lemon producers.
The announcement was made on Sunday night by the president of the Association of Citrus Growers of the Apatzingán Valley (ACVA), Bernardo Bravo Manríquez, who announced on his social networks that these marketing companies will permanently stop operating in the coming days.
“With deep sadness we inform that at least 5 of these companies CLOSED PERMANENTLY.”
Said Bernardo Bravo Manríquez, president of the Association of Citrus Growers of the Apatzingán Valley
It was on March 2 when the representative of the lemon sector said that at that time 30 packing plants in the municipality of Apatzingán remained inactive. Now, only some will begin to operate again next week, but intermittently.
Bravo Manríquez announced that the administrative offices of the Tianguis Limonero de Apatzingán would close due to the threats received, in response to which the measure was taken to not put the people who work there at risk.
Despite this closure, the facilities would remain open so that citrus growers could use them. Recently, in the same statement on March 2, it was stated that they would be reopened once the restructuring process was completed.
The issue of extortion remains latent, even with the presence of security elements from the three levels of government, to which the head of the ACVA has pointed out that criminal groups have the farmers “on their knees.” This caused them to decide to suspend activities on at least two occasions last year.
Source: OEM
