DR. MARSHALL Hall, chairman of the Banana Export Company of Jamaica (BECo), says that, on May 6, 250 tonnes of bananas valued at US$25,000 will leave Jamaica destined for the European Union (EU), signalling Jamaica's re-entry into the export market.
This follows the down time in the local banana industry due to damage caused by hurricane Ivan last September.
"We will be resuming with fairly moderate quantities, which will be approximately a third of what we normally ship and that will gradually increase over May to early June, when we anticipate to get up to three quarters," he recently told the Jamaica Information Service .
QUANTITIES TO ESCALATE
Dr. Hall noted that shipments will be made every week thereafter and quantities will rapidly escalate, to peak at US$50,000 to US$70,000 worth of the product after the end of May, when the sector gets back into full production.
"That will be translated to between US$25 million to US$30 million for the year as we make a comeback," he says, adding that some 500 tonnes of bananas should start going out each week by the end of next month.
The bulk of the bananas to make up the first shipment is expected to come from St. Mary Banana Estate, with the Eastern Banana Estate expecting to return fully by the end of May or early June. As for the small farmers, Dr. Hall said those in Portland and St. Mary have also come back strong.
The EU assistance programme, he says, benefited export as well as domestic producers and, as such, bananas should also be coming back in St. James. "Even though they might not hit the export market, they will certainly hit the local market," he says, adding that, "we will also see some bananas coming back in parts of St. Catherine."
BACK ON SHELVES
Local consumers should have already started to see the precious commodity in the markets and supermarkets.
"I think you should be able to find both ripe and green bananas in most supermarkets and Coronation market would have a lot of green bananas and ... I would anticipate that certainly this week we should begin to see bananas in roughly the same quantities as they used to be," Dr. Hall reported.
As for the banana chips producers, Dr. Hall advised that almost all the traditional producers have resumed production.
