HALLTHE BANANA industry should fully recover from the effects of Hurricane Ivan by July, but export of the fruit could start from as early as April, says Dr. Marshall Hall, chairman of the Banana Company of Jamaica (BECo).
He said that since the passage of the Hurricane in September, the industry has lost more than US$16 million in foreign exchange earnings, but all this should change once the banana boats begin to sail again within the next four months.
"We expect to start exporting bananas again by April/May of this year. The initial tonnage will be small but we anticipate them getting back to more or less full monthly levels by June to July of this year," said Dr. Hall.
CLEAR PATH OF RECOVERY
He said that the banana industry was on a clear path of recovery as the fruit will be ready for the local market by March.
"As far as the recovery of the banana industry is concerned, plans are well advanced and most farmers have brought back their fields (into production) and we anticipate that local sales should commence as early as March or April of this year."
He noted that the country earns about US$30 million per year from the banana industry.
"If you put that on a monthly basis, we are losing over US$2 million in revenues every month and that would have happened since Hurricane Ivan in September and that will continue until we resume exporting," Dr. Hall said. "So we are losing about US$6 million in revenues over these seven months and we hope to see it come back once we start exporting again in April/May."
SIX TO NINE MONTHS
TO RECOVER
Dr. Hall explained that bananas take about six to nine months to recover after a hurricane, depending on the level of resuscitation work done, but the extensive damage to fields made the process of recovery slow.
He noted, however, that the European Union stepped in to assist the process and based on this assistance, he anticipated that by about March, the section will reach about 25 to 30 per cent of normal sales and this is expected to gradually increase through to June or July of this year.
Dr. Hall said that farmers were fortunate to have retained most, if not all, of the young banana suckers, thus preventing the need to import to replenish the stock.
