agriculture

Fruits head to Europe

Alvin Reyes could not hold back a smile when asked about the recent watermelon harvest at his Chiriquí farm.

A new irrigation system has boosted his land's yield by 30 percent. More importantly, he is getting 35 cents a pound for his crop, which will be headed to Holland.

On Feb. 7, a new processing plant that the government built in Chiriquí for $1 million produced its first container of watermelons that will be shipped to Europe.

Pablo Vázquez Pérez, head of operations at the processing plant, said that it will eventually produce 45 containers a day, each containing 44,500 pounds of watermelon. The plant has 27 employees.

The Panamanian government has taken steps to open Europe's market to local farmers through trade agreements.

That could offset a drop in demand from American consumers if the U.S. economy goes into a recession and if a free trade agreement with that country is not finalized this year. It will also help farmers whose harvests were delayed by bad weather this year.