Colombia puts some banana crops in quarantine on fungus concern

FILE PHOTO - A man works on a banana farm in Carepa, Colombia, March 17, 2017. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia has put a patch of banana crops in the north of the country under quarantine on suspicion they are infested with a fungus that is seen as potentially devastating to the country's banana exports, the agriculture minister said on Sunday.

The fusarium R4T fungus causes a malady popularly known as Panama disease and can remain in the soil for up to 30 years by attacking the roots of banana plants, which are Colombia's third-largest agriculture export after coffee and flowers.