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LOSSES: Banana industry still suffering after Tropical Storm

THE JAMAICAN banana industry continues to reel from the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Nicole in 2010, with the country having to import US$8.3 million worth of the fruit last year to meet the demands of banana-chips processors.

This was necessary, with most of the fruit coming out of Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, as farmers are yet to get the much-needed financial assistance to put their fields back into production, according to Grethel Sessing, president of the All-Island Banana Growers' Association (AIBGA).

She told AgroGleaner that despite the ongoing lobbying of the AIBGA, Government has been slow to help and the European Union (EU) funding project is still in the pipeline, while the delay is hurting local production. In fact, some farmers have thrown up their fields.

Partnership

Sessing noted that, whereas in 2008 there were about 6,000 persons employed in the banana trade, that number has fallen by about one third. With the onus on her organisation to get fields back into production, the AIBGA has signed a memorandum of understanding/partnership with local banana-chips processor Chippies and Jamaica Producers (JP), the Peoples Co-operative (PC) Bank and the Banana Board, to get banana production back on track.

The AIBGA is working to provide inputs for the farmers from whom the processors have agreed to take the fruit at an agreed economically viable price (for farmers), while the Banana Board will provide administrative support for the project, with the PC banks making loans available.

Another priority for the AIBGA is the setting up of a structured marketing programme for small farmers. JP, which started exporting bananas to Cayman last September, does its own marketing, but the EU is to provide funding to kick-start the much-needed marketing project.

With the cessation of exports to the United Kingdom in 2008, farmers have turned to marketing their produce to hotels, schools, hospitals and other institutions which purchase the fruit in bulk to use in the green and ripened state. However, for the most part, farmers' actions have been undermining each other.

Sessing explains: "The AIBJA is looking at wholesale marketing of bananas because the current system is unstructured, which results in fluctuation in supply (gluts and shortages). Everybody tries to sell to the same persons, with one playing off against the other, resulting in reduced prices."

Exploitation

Then, there are hagglers who exploit this individual approach by taking fruit from one farmer this week with a promise to pay and moving to a next farmer the following week, without having paid the first farmer.

Convinced that collective marketing is the way to go, the AIBGA has sought financial help from the EU to set up a centralised system in much the same way it has established two ripening houses in Kensington, St James and Pembroke Hall, St Mary.

The facilities are owned by the AIBGA and farmers take their fruit to them where it is ripened for a small cost and the farmers collect and transport it to their various markets. However, some of the EU funding is earmarked for the purchase of refrigerated trucks which the AIBGA will use to pick up the fruit from farmers and take it to the ripening houses. Thereafter, it will also transport the ripened fruit to market for the farmers.

"This way, we will be able to ensure that bananas get to the houses and markets in much better condition than now happens," the AIBGA president told AgroGleaner.