Andrew Green, Staff ReporterIT WILL be next year before Jamaica's export thrust regains its momentum, says the president of the Jamaica Exporters' Association (JEA), Dr. André Gordon.
Hurricane Ivan lashed the island on September 10, causing an estimated $35 billion in property damage, according to the Planning Institute of Jamaica. The export sector was particularly hard hit.
"Our latest estimate is that we
suffered between US$14 million to US$16 million in lost revenues," Dr. Gordon said of the export sector. "I suspect that it will be somewhat higher, perhaps 30 per cent higher, when we have a more accurate report."
At the end of June 2004, non-traditional domestic exports had grown by US$102.8 million or 21.6 per cent to US$578.2
million over the first half of the year before. Some of the top performers were agriculture, with earnings of US$30.4 million, coffee US$18.5 million, alumina US$392.2 million and bauxite at US$50.4 million. Exports from manufacturing rose to US$104.3 million, largely due to improvements in sugar exports of US$90.4 million.
ECONOMY HALTED
'Ivan' brought the economy to a halt. For most companies, there was a two to three-week delay in starting production because of the disruption in the supply of power and other key inputs.
Agriculture was the worst hit sector, Dr. Gordon said. "Several areas were just totally wiped out and will not be in production for the next three months."
The export of canned ackees was badly affected. Last year Jamaica exported US$8.5 million of the product and it is now likely that the export level this year will fall short of this by US$5 million to US$6 million. The problem is that Hurricane Ivan struck at the start of the ackee season in September. It is uncertain what damage the sugar crop has suffered, but "The bananas crop is gone," Dr. Gordon said. Aquaculture also suffered loss because of the flooding of ponds, while the seafood export sector sustained damage to traps and boats.
Damage to agriculture also translated to areas of agro-processing, which are dependent on agricultural raw material inputs. He said, "Those will also be out of production."
The bauxite/alumina sector was hit by the damage to port facilities, but should recover this year.
Not all of the island's exports have been savaged by hurricane damage,
however. "We have been able to diversify our export base, so areas like chemicals, the extractive industry, re-exports and a range of other industries were able to
continue operating," he continued. Companies such as Wray and Nephew and Red Stripe were able to get back into production quickly.
Some exporters which escaped damage from Hurricane Ivan domestically were hurt by hurricane damage to key markets. Florida, Cayman and Grenada were all affected.
IMPORTS DISRUPTED
There was also disruption in imports as ships were unable to dock during the
passage of the hurricane. There was also a period during and after the hurricane when public utilities were disrupted.
"The situation is bad, but it could have been much worse," Dr. Gordon said. "I expect that we will end up with a better overall performance this year than last, because of the rate at which we were growing for the first six months of the year."
Improvements in the export sector have put companies on a much stronger financial footing than previously. This means most will be able to ride out the damage caused by the storm.
"We have put systems in place to strengthen the export sector to withstand these kinds of disasters," he said. Through the cluster competitiveness
programme, the JEA has attempted to get companies to work together and
collaborate on issues such as insurance and collective buying. "We want to know
how can we make the export sector stronger, coming out of this disaster," said Dr. Gordon.
