Seipasa receives Seican registration for the control of black sigatoka in bananas

Seipasa, a Spanish company specialising in the development, formulation and production of bioinsecticides, biofungicides, biostimulants and nutritional treatments for agriculture, has obtained the phytosanitary registration of Seican in Colombia and Ecuador for the control of black sigatoka in bananas.

Seican is a biological fungicide and acaricide developed from a highly technical formulation of natural origin. It provides rapid curative and eradicant action for the control of various pathogens. Its formulation offers precision, reliability and flexibility of use, as it can be applied the day before harvest without leaving chemical residues on the crop. In addition, Seican is an optimal tool for resistance management.

Seican is a control tool developed under Seipasa's natural technology model. In addition to Ecuador and Colombia, Seican is a registered phytosanitary product in the  USA, Mexico and Peru.

A real alternative to mancozeb

José Luis Egas, Seipasa’s sales director for LATAM, asserts that Seican is a ″real alternative to reduce the use of mancozeb″, a chemical contact fungicide that ″is still very widely used to treat sigatoka in banana plantations in South and Central America". In addition to all the problems of resistance, crop residues and risks to human and environmental health, mancozeb is a substance that is no longer authorised in the European Union

″The new registration of Seican reaffirms our commitment to putting new alternative disease control tools in the hands of farmers. Seican is a new biological solution that is fully in line with our Natural Technology model and has all the security and credibility that comes with a phytosanitary registration,″ said Egas.

Resistance management

Another key to Seican’s success is the inclusion of its active ingredient in group BM 03 of the FRAC (Fungicide Resistance Action Committee), an international body that classifies fungicides and issues guidelines for their use based on their resistance behaviour.
For Miguel Lozano, Seipasa’s sales representative in Ecuador and Colombia, the inclusion of Seican in this FRAC-approved group demonstrates the product’s ability to prevent the emergence of resistance: ″Ornamental and banana crop technicians, especially those who handle black sigatoka, rotate with the FRAC groups. It is very important for Seipasa to have the support of this international committee, which recogmnises Seican as a new, effective and solvent tool in rotation strategies,″ assures Lozano.
Seipasa’s sales representative in Ecuador and Colombia also explained that the BM 03 group is one of the most attractive for sanitary management, as it contains the most innovative molecules in the group of microbiological and botanical agents.

Ecuador and Colombia are two very important markets for banana production. Ecuador remains the world’s leading exporter of bananas. Last year ended with sales of 354 million crates, an increase of 4.5% over the previous year, according to data from the Ecuadorian Banana Growers Association (AEBE). The European Union remains the main export destination.