By Andrew Green, Staff Reporter
ON the surface, you would hardly notice it, but the banana industry has been completely transformed from what it was a generation ago.
Even though Jamaica and Jamaicans played a pioneering role in the development of the banana export trade, the local industry was brought to its knees by local and external changes. But the business is being revitalised.
"It is a revolution," said Donald Elvey, technology transfer manager for the European Union Banana Support Programme. The industry now grows different bananas, in different areas and using different technology than in the past.
The average Jamaican grew up eating a wide variety of exotic ripe bananas with green bananas bought at the market for cooking. That is no longer the case.
"We used to see a lot of Gros Michel, 'Chinese' bananas and other varieties," Mr. Elvey said. But disease has wiped those out.
"The industry changed to Robusta, Williams hybrid, Valerie, Ziv and Grand Nain," he said. The old varieties are no longer on the shelves.
"Jamaica is the only country in Caribbean eating so much boiled banana," said Vincent Thompson, Project Manager of the European Union Banana Support Programme. "And now people are consuming more ripe bananas."
The banana industry also supplies fruit to the newly evolving manufacturing sector which uses the commodity in processes such as chip and porridge making, as well as in juices.
Bananas are still sold in the island's markets and street corners, but the product is now also found in upscale supermarkets and North Coast Hotels. Mr. Thompson said the result is that domestic consumption has boomed.
An estimated 120,000 tonnes of bananas are consumed locally each year, Mr. Thomp-son said. For 2003 the country exported 43,000 tonnes.
"There was a time when Jamaica exported 300,000 tonnes," said Dr. Marshall Hall, managing director of the Jamaica Producers Group, the country's leading banana producers. By 1966, production had fallen to 205,000 tonnes and the output has plummeted since.
While the fall in exports is well known, little attention has been paid to the increase in domestic consumption, Mr. Elvey said. This was particularly noticeable after the Black Sigatoka disease hit the industry in the 1990s, halving the export output.
That disease wiped out the bananas grown by subsistence farmers for the domestic market, Mr. Thompson said. This is because they had no programme to protect their fruit against the disease.
Farmers producing for the export market sprayed their crop for protection and mostly stayed in the business. The fall in exports to 40,000 tonnes in 2000 was mainly a substitution effect, as bananas that would normally have gone into exports were diverted into the domestic market where supplies had fallen.
The collapse of the domestic subsistence sector means that the industry, which had been spread across the island before, is now concentrated in those areas which had been producing for export. The concentration now is in the parishes of St. Thomas, Portland, St. Mary and St. James.
But the producers in St. James have shifted to supplying the domestic market, Mr. Thompson said. Export production is now limited to the three eastern parishes involving just 3,200 acres. Domestic production probably involves 6,000 acres.
"We have taken unproductive acreages out and concentrated on areas of maximum returns," Mr. Elvey said. "From a smaller acreage we are now producing more."
"The change in the industry has benefited the existing producers," Mr. Thompson said. "Fruit which does not meet the export quality standard can be absorbed in the domestic market."
The export farmers are thus earning more from their operations, the project manager said. This in turn, has enhanced the viability of the island's exports.
Dr. Hall said the high level of domestic consumption gave the country's exporters a competitive edge as producers in many other countries had to dump fruit which did not meet export standards.
The increased competitiveness of the industry had been brought about with heavy investment from the EU's Banana Support Programme, Mr. Elvey said. This provided the technical assistance, funding and inputs needed to take the industry to its present position.
Tissue culture was introduced two years ago and farmers can see the difference it makes in productivity, Mr. Thompson said. The changes made have boosted the percentage of fruit attaining export quality standards from 70 per cent in 1990 to over 90 per cent currently.
"Our next aim is production," Mr. Thompson said. Production is increasing and more farmers are getting involved in exports.
"I expect that by the end of 2004 our output will be 50,000 tonnes," Dr. Hall said. He said, the country's overall output should ultimately stabilise at around the 50-55,000 tonne level.
