Banana Industry is Suffering

CASTRIES, St Lucia – The Windward Islands bananas industry could suffer losses estimated at EC$80 million (US$29.6 million) over the next six months following the devastation to the sector caused by Hurricane Tomas last month, according to a senior official of the marketing and export company, WINFRESH.
Director of Technical Support Dr Errol Reid said that exports to the international market could drop by at least 40,000 tonnes, for he remainder of the year, representing approximately 20 per cent of the exports for the 2010.
“That represents production that will not be available for the rest of the year. It’s a substantial loss which will last at least for the next six months, well into 2011.
“At the Windwards level we are looking at EC$70 (US$25.9 million) to $80 million year per year of money earned by the islands, over seventy per cent of which would come from St. Lucia.”
Reid said that bananas from the St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia, the two islands affected by the passage of the storm, are among the preferred fruit by United Kingdom consumers.
Agriculture Minister Ezekiel Joseph has said that it could be another eight months before the banana industry becomes viable.
“As a country, we may be able to export bananas in May or June, 2011,” said Joseph.
“If there is need for total rehabilitation as a Ministry we believe that we should capitalise on the opportunity for us to produce during a period when WINFRESH and the UK market has the demand for the product.
“So whilst there are a lot of sad stories, there are opportunities for us as a country to capitalise on what is happening right now,” he added.
Preliminary assessments also indicate that the livestock sector was also severely hit by Tomas, which came at a time that the entire agriculture industry was re-emerging from the effects of the recent drought.
The Agriculture Minister said the devastation caused by the natural disaster has made it even more important for government to scale up support for the industry.
“The Prime Minister (Stephenson King) just recently made an allocation to provide support to our farmers. Right now we have to go back to the drawing board. We believe that whilst the situation is drastic, our farmers will be able to bounce back with the necessary support,” Joseph said.
“It’s not the first time we have experienced something like this; we know our farmers are capable of bouncing back, although this is the worst I have ever seen in my tenure within the agriculture sector. We will not surrender. I want to see this as an opportunity and I will capitalise on it.”
Joseph said technical personnel from the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry and Fisheries will be conducting an in-depth assessment to ascertain the real extent of loss to the agriculture sector.
Tomas caused widespread damage in St Lucia and claimed at least 14 lives. Prime Minister King put the extent of the damage to the island at EC$500 million (US$185 million).